Connections
by Gottahavemyncis
Summary: What might have happened if… Tim and Gibbs centric with the team and agency as characterized in Seasons 3-5. A 2nd alternate view of my personal canon description of Tim's early life; the second of 2 stories addressing Tim's childhood. Gibbs, his family, Tim, Sarah, Mike Franks, our team, my OC characters. Canon divergence. McGiva hints, following At What Price. 12 chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Notes:

\- If you're unfamiliar with my stories At What Price or Finding Home, this story won't make much sense. While I'd love you to read them, you can instead look at my profile on fan fiction net under "Personal Canon", that will at least give you the bare facts of Tim's background, although Connections and The Letter deviate from it.

\- This story is the second of two resulting from a question put to me by Aleta6 while I was posting At What Price. The question was what would have happened if Gibbs found Tim at the shelter or camp.

\- Tony fans, as in At What Price, please be patient. No bashing but there are mentions of his canon treatment and attitude toward Tim McGee in the first couple of seasons. Overall, the McNozzo friendship prevails.

\- Almost forgot, I've also messed with the timeline. Because it's fiction and I can!

Here we go, Alternate View #2:

Connections

Prologue

In the spring of 1986, after the deaths of their father and brother Patrick, Tim and Sarah McGee were abandoned by their stepmother, Natalie. Tim was 9, Sarah 3 when Natalie McGee put them on a bus that would take them from San Francisco, California to Bayopolis, a city in Maryland, on the East Coast. Although she told them her cousins would meet them at the bus station, there was no one waiting for the young McGees. While they waited for the non-existent cousins, Tim gradually realizing no one was coming, they met Geordie Perry, a 12-year-old orphan. At the end of the day, Geordie took them to the transient tent camp where he lived.

Weeks after their arrival in the city and still staying with Geordie, Tim rescued a 2-year-old boy named Robbie. His drug-addict mother, Ellen Brill, reluctantly agreed to serve as their 'shelter' mother, signing them into the homeless shelter each night. In return, Tim would take care of Robbie along with Sarah. Although he was too old to be part of the shelter 'family' and too young to stay there on his own, Geordie helped; he'd already become part of the little family. On the nights when Ellen showed up, Tim, Sarah and Robbie stayed in the homeless shelter near the transient camp where Geordie still lived. When she didn't show, the McGees and Robbie returned to the camp to share tent space with Geordie and three other boys. For three years, they followed this pattern as they struggled daily to survive.

Part One

Chapter 1

Three years later, 1989, Bayopolis, Maryland

Terrified, 5-year-old Robbie and 6-year-old Sarah boarded the bus that would take them to the hospital, holding tightly to Geordie's hands. Timmy, their Timpa was hurt and now they were going to him.

Robbie tried not to cry, they'd been sitting in the big room at the shelter, spelling the word 'park' together when a crazy man cut Tim in the back, really bad. He never wanted to spell anything ever again. Ellen, his mother, was there, she was in the sleeping room but she didn't come out to help with Tim or anything. He and Sarah remembered Dr. Kelly at the free clinic saying that pressure would help stop bleeding so they pressed down with their hands. The blood didn't stop coming so they sat on Tim's back, on the place where it was bleeding the most. Timpa was finally quiet and Robbie didn't know if that was a good thing but at least he wasn't screaming anymore.

Ms. Lu, one of the managers of the shelter, helped. She sent Larry, a big guy who could run fast, to the camp to get Geordie and Nate. An ambulance and the police arrived, making lots of noise with sirens and squawking radios, and took Timpa away. Ms. Lu said they couldn't go with him, which was bad; they always went with Tim unless Geordie was there.

When Geordie came in, he was red in the face from running so fast. Old Nate came in after him and Ms. Lu told them what happened. While she was talking, Barry, one of Geordie's tent mates, came in with Geo's suitcase.

It was close to dinnertime and Ms. Lu couldn't leave so she gave Geordie bus money to take the littles to the hospital. She locked their suitcases in her office, saying she would bring them to the hospital later. On the bus, they sat on Geordie's lap and Rob stood on the seat when it was time to pull the buzzer so they could get out.

Sarah was too scared to think or cry; she just hung onto Geordie and didn't protest when Rob pulled the buzzer. She wanted Tim and even though she usually felt safe with Geordie, now she didn't feel safe about anything. Hoping this was a bad dream, she closed her eyes really tight but when she opened them, she was still on the bus with Geo and Robbie.

Geordie kept his eyes on the street as the bus rolled forward, afraid of missing their stop, holding onto the kids and trying not to think about his friend and the blood on the floor and the kids. Ms. Lu helped Sarah and Robbie wash their hands, arms, faces and change their clothes before they left. She said people would stop them otherwise. Geo could feel the little ones trembling as he held them on his lap; he was just as scared even though he was much older. He didn't exactly know why but Tim trusted him with his little sister and the little boy he took care of, who he called his little brother. But now he didn't know what to do. Take them to the hospital and then what? How was he going to take care of all of them? He tried to think what his dad would tell him to do if he were still alive and that gave him an idea.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The bus stopped right in front of the hospital and Geordie and the kids scrambled off, the little ones still holding onto Geo. They went in the Emergency Room entrance, asking for Tim at the front desk, remembering to call him Tim Brill instead of Tim McGee, saying they were Tim's sister and brothers. Ellen Brill, Robbie's mother, was their 'shelter' mother and her name was on Tim's records so for today they were all named Brill. The nurse asked where their mother was and Geordie lied, saying she was at work, trying to get a ride to the hospital. The nurse looked doubtful but the Emergency Room was at capacity and she was crazy busy. Telling them Tim was in surgery, she gave them directions to a waiting room.

When they got to the waiting room, there was no one else in it and there was a pay phone. Geordie had enough money left from the bus fare money Ms. Lu gave him to make the call he'd thought about. He looked in the phone book hanging from the shelf by the phone. He sighed in relief when he finally found the number he wanted.

Keeping an eye on the littles, he quickly dialed the toll-free-800 number, happy to hear the dime drop back into the coin well. With the rest of the change from the bus fare, ten cents more meant they could have a snack later and still have enough to take the bus back to the shelter. When there was an answer, he gave his real name and reported the attack. The guy who answered the phone said he had to put him on hold for a minute, not to hang up.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

At NIS, Boss's phone rang and his junior agent grabbed his gear, ready to roll on a case. Boss listened, asked a few questions and told whoever it was they'd be there in about an hour. When he hung up, he rolled his eyes at his overeager Probie, standing there with his gear bag. The other member of the team was out taking witness statements for a death ruled a suicide; it was just the two of them.

"Yeah, need your gear, we've got a young kid, supposedly a Navy dependent, who was stabbed in a homeless shelter; that'll be an interesting conversation with Bayopolis PD. I'm gonna grab one of Stover's agents to work the crime scene with me while you head to the hospital to talk with the kid who called it in."

His junior agent, Jethro "Probie" Gibbs, frowned, "A kid called it in? Where are the victim's parents or guardians?"

Franks growled, "That's why you're gonna talk with the kid, Probie. You're good with kids."

Gibbs headed for the elevator and their assigned sedan. Asking for additional help, Franks was assigned a young agent named Rick Carter. Fresh out of college, FLETC and 10 months into his probationary year, he was well thought of and would be more than ready for his promotion to junior agent. He'd worked with Franks' team before and passed muster, not an easy thing to accomplish.

Even with Franks' crazy driving it took them 80 minutes in the thick of commute traffic to reach the hospital where Gibbs was dropped off. It took him awhile to locate the kid but eventually he was sitting in a waiting room with a young teen and two little kids, both about his daughter's age. He introduced himself, showing his badge and ID. The older boy, Geordie Perry, examined both closely before looking up and studying him. Finally, he asked, "Are you a Marine?"

Startled, Gibbs nodded, "Yes, in the reserves."

Geordie nodded, "My dad was a Marine sergeant. I'm going in as soon as I graduate from high school."

Gibbs gave him a half smile; this was good news, a connection. He started to ask a question but stopped when a hungry tummy rumbled. All three of the kids looked like they could use a good meal, several good meals.

Gibbs knew these kids were scared for the kid who'd been hurt and the two little ones were still scared of him. Only the older one seemed determined, of what he didn't know. He sat back and looked at them. "The nurse downstairs told me your brother is going to be in surgery for a few more hours. I don't know about you three but I'm hungry, it's close to my suppertime. Would you have dinner with me?"

Sarah shook her head, "We don't have any money."

Geordie pulled out twenty cents, "This is what we don't need for the bus fare back to the shelter. We'll get something from the vending machine and share it."

Gibbs pretended to think, "You know, I don't think NIS would mind paying for your dinners tonight. After all, Sarah and Rob are Tim's sister and brother so they're Navy dependents too. And Geordie, I'd be honored to buy dinner for the son of a fellow Marine - if you'll allow it."

The two little ones looked at Geordie, pleading looks on their faces. He nodded, "All right, Agent Gibbs, that'll be fine, thank you." As they walked through the waiting room doorway, he whispered another "Thanks" to the agent. Gibbs wasn't sure why, whether it was for making up reasons to buy them dinner, for honoring the son of a fellow Marine or maybe for staying with them.

They got food, Gibbs making sure each of the kids had a full plate with plenty of protein, vegetables and two cartons of milk each; adding extra rolls, apples, oranges, Jell-O cups, juice boxes, packets of crackers and cheese and anything else he saw that they could take with them. When he paid, he asked for three take-away boxes and the cashier smiled as she handed them over along with a carry bag.

Sitting at a table in a quiet corner, the kids attacked their food hungrily. Gibbs stopped them when he thought they'd eaten enough.

"Why don't we take a break from eating and talk about what happened today? I have boxes so you can take your food with you."

Three pairs of eyes looked up at him, reluctant to stop but Geordie knew he was right, if they ate everything on their plates they'd get sick, their stomachs weren't used to this much food at once. Or in a week. He nodded at the kids and they sighed, putting their forks down.

Gibbs put his down as well, "All right. Were all three of you there when Tim was hurt?"

Geordie shook his head, "I wasn't."

"Ok, so Sarah and Rob, you were there?" Two nods. "Can you tell me what happened?" Two lower lips trembled and he spoke softly, "What were you doing before it happened?"

Sarah answered, "We were working on spelling, with James, Tiffany, Heather, Billy and Duarte. We were sitting at one of the big tables and Tim," her chin wobbled as she tried not to cry and Geordie pulled her in for a hug. His big eyes full of unshed tears, Rob looked at the NIS agent as he continued the story, "Timpa was working in the kitchen. He gets extra food for us when he does that. He was getting plates and stuff out for dinner and giving us spelling words. We were spelling the word park."

Sarah nodded, "P-A- and then the bad man grabbed Tim and cut his back with a knife."

Robbie was crying but kept talking, "Timmy screamed, it musta hurt really bad because he never screams when he's hurt, he never even cries."

Sarah continued, "Some of the grownups grabbed the bad guy and we went to help Tim. He was screaming and there was blood and Robbie remembered that you're 'sposed to put pressure on a cut, the doctor told him that when he cut his finger. He's gonna be a doctor."

Robbie nodded, "We tried with our hands but it wasn't enough so we sat on him. We didn't know what else to do."

"You sat on him?"

"Uh huh. On the cut. It was really long so we sat next to each other and then the grownups helped but they didn't sit on him."

"That was smart! Do you remember what the bad guy looked like?"

Sarah nodded, "Big, like Nate at the camp but not Nate, he's nice. He was scary with yellowy eyes, black hair and his face was fuzzy. He was drinking coffee and watching us. Mrs. Jameson, that's Billy and Heather's mom, was sitting with us and she didn't like him. She kept saying she was going to ask Ms. Lu to throw him out, but she's not allowed to if they're not doing anything wrong."

"You said some of the grownups grabbed him?"

Robbie nodded, "Yeah but when we were sitting on Tim, I saw the bad guy hit Mr. Garrett and then he ran out the back door, almost knocked Ms. Lu down, that's when they started helping us." He added as an afterthought, "He had a funny looking nose."

"Can you describe it, Robbie? My boss is at the shelter now talking to people so we can find him and put him in jail; it might help if we told him about his nose."

Robbie ran a finger down his own nose and then down Sarah's. He looked up at the agent who swallowed a sigh and lowered his head so the kid could feel what his nose felt like. "His nose wasn't straight like ours and it had a bump…here." The little boy tapped Gibbs' nose just below the bridge.

"That's good, kiddo! I'm going to phone my boss to tell him. Black hair, yellowy eyes and a crooked nose with a bump, that's really good kids."

Sarah felt good that they were helping catch the guy that hurt Tim, but it didn't make Tim any better so then she felt bad again. She scrunched her face as Gibbs continued talking. "When my team comes to get me, we can take you back over to the shelter."

The little kids shook their heads violently, "No, we can't leave Timpa!"

"But it might take the doctors a long time to fix him."

Geordie caught his eye, "I'll stay with them, Agent Gibbs. They're used to me."

Rob and Sarah were trying very hard not to be even more scared. Now they had to worry about Tim _and_ about being taken away by this guy, maybe even given to the CPS people.

Gibbs saw their fear but didn't say anything about it just yet. He looked at Geordie, "The hospital won't let you stay all night."

"Then they'll stay with me. It's what Tim would want anyway; they normally stay with me if he has to be somewhere he can't take them."

Gibbs frowned, "I'll stay with the three of you until your brother is out of surgery." Geordie opened his mouth to protest but nodded instead; he was wary of the federal agent but he knew they needed an adult to help and he'd lost hope that Ellen, Rob's mother (and right now ostensibly Tim's, Sarah's and his), would show up.

Using the pay phone, Gibbs called his boss at the shelter and passed along the information about the attacker's description. Franks grunted, "That's more specific than any of the adults here. Except for one woman who was sitting with the kids, she said something about the nose and hair. Any news?"

He pulled the door to the phone booth shut but kept his voice soft anyway. "No and the kids won't leave until they know how Tim is. Can't say I blame them, they're at risk until we catch this guy."

"Stay with 'em."

"On it, Boss."

"Probie, didn't you used to be a foster parent?"

"Yeah, still am. My wife and I are certified, we've only had one kid for a few days though."

"All right, I'm gonna call that McKinna woman we worked with on the Hammacher case and see if we can get the three kids officially put in your custody as foster children. And Timothy too when he's out of the hospital. I'll call the Yard and have someone bring a car for you and a security detail to stand guard once the kid's out of surgery, until we find this bastard. The mother isn't around…the Ellen Brill person. Looks like she disappeared right around the same time as the slime ball."

Gibbs' eyes widened as Franks' words hit him, _he and Shannon were gonna have custody of these three? And the brother? For how long?_ He opened his mouth to say something to his boss when Franks wound down but thought better of it. They needed protection and the shelter was obviously not safe; he figured the camp the kids mentioned would be even worse and whoever the so-called mother really was obviously wasn't reliable, could even be part of the attack.

Instead of protesting, he said, "I'll discuss it with my wife. Boss, they'll need their things. The manager has the suitcases for all four kids. Geordie mentioned one of his friends brought his to the shelter so the manager, the kids call her Ms. Lu, could lock them in her office."

"Ok, we'll get 'em to you. I'm gonna call for the car and security, we'll be done here by the time they get to the hospital."

"And Ms. McKinna at Child Protective Services."

Franks hung up and Gibbs called his wife who answered cheerfully, "Hi hon, coming home soon?"

"Not sure, Shan. We have a situation…" He told her about the kids and his boss's idea that they take the 3 kids in as fosters and include the 4th one when he was released from the hospital. She agreed although she had no idea where they were going to sleep. The little girl could sleep with Kelly, she guessed they could share her bed tonight and the two boys could share the bed in the guest room. They'd get more organized tomorrow but she and Kelly needed to do some grocery shopping before Jethro came home with the new kids. As far as finances went, they knew they'd be paid for the kids' care, that wasn't an issue. She shook her head, it wouldn't be an issue even if CPS didn't pay; the Gibbs family would find a way.

Gibbs stepped back into the waiting room. "Got a new plan. I'll stay with you as I said and when your brother is out of surgery another agent will stay with him to keep him safe and the three of you will come home with me. My wife and I are foster parents; my boss is squaring it with CPS now."

The little ones weren't sure how they felt. They'd always heard that CPS and fosters were a bad thing. Although Geordie would be with them so that was good and they felt like Gibbs was a good guy; it was good someone would stay with their Timpa. But were they ever coming back? Sarah asked and Geordie nodded, that was his question too. They all had school here for one thing and it was only Tuesday. He said that and Gibbs nodded. "I'll talk with our case worker, you'll be with us for a few weeks at least; we'll get your schools squared away tomorrow so you'll start at the schools near our house on Thursday and only miss one day. Tim will come home with us when he's well enough to leave the hospital. For tonight, we'll go to our house and tomorrow we'll come back here to see Tim. After we hear what the doctors say, we can start making better plans."

Geordie finally found his voice, "Where do you live?"

"In Arlington, Virginia; not too far from here. We have a four-bedroom house with a backyard. You'll have to share and we probably won't be very organized tonight, we'll figure it out tomorrow."

Sarah looked at him, "Do you have kids?"

Gibbs smiled, "Yes, my wife Shannon and I have a little girl named Kelly who's 5 years old."

Robbie grinned and Gibbs smiled at the gaps between his baby teeth, "I'm 5 and Sarah's 6!"

Gibbs patted his head. "Kelly will like that! So…what can you tell me about your family?"

Sarah shrugged, "Our dad and brother Patrick died. Our first mom died a long time ago."

He nodded and they sat quietly for a few seconds until he realized none of them was going to say any more without prompting. Finally, he asked, "What was your father's name, Sarah?"

"Commander Dan McGee." She spoke carefully, telling Agent Gibbs what Tim had told them even though she didn't know what some of the words meant and she said them slowly. "Tim says he was the executive officer of the Enterprise. Our brother's name was Patrick; I don't remember him."

"What happened to them?"

Sarah shrugged, "They got in a wreck when somebody hit our dad's car. Timmy got thrown out and was hurt really bad." She looked up, "That was before we came here; I was pretty little."

"How little?"

She shrugged again but Geordie spoke up, "Sarah was three and Tim was nine."

Gibbs looked at Geordie, wondering how he was connected. Geordie caught the look, swallowing before adding his own history, "My mom died when I was 6 and my dad died while we were staying at the shelter, about 4 years ago and then I moved to the camp. I met Tim and Sarah at the bus station here their first day, when Tim realized nobody was coming for them, they'd been abandoned."

"Have you been on your own since your dad died?"

Geordie nodded, "Until Tim and the kids came along; they kinda made me one of the family. And I have friends; there are four of us who share a tent."

"Are they orphans too?"

Geordie's eyes widened in horror, he hadn't meant to rat out his friends so CPS could swoop in and take them away. The foster kids around here had horrible things happen to them; they were always being moved around, separated from their brothers and sisters, most of the ones Geordie knew wore old clothes, were hungry and sometimes bruised and he knew a few who'd been abused, they weren't any better off than the shelter or camp kids.

Gibbs shook his head, "I won't mention them if you don't want me to." He paused, "Are there other kids on their own at the camp?"

Geordie shook his head, "No, everyone else has an adult."

"What about the shelter?"

"Kids can't stay there without a parent or guardian."

"Huh. Who is Ellen Brill?" Rob, who'd been half-asleep, opened his eyes wide at the mention of the woman who'd nearly abandoned him, only admitting his existence after Timpa rescued him from a busy city street.

Geordie looked at him and then at Gibbs, "She's Rob's mother. When she showed up at the camp three years ago, Tim made a deal with her. He'd take care of Robbie if she'd be his and Sarah's 'shelter' mother. Kind of like a foster mother, but only when the shelter's open. She just had to show up at the shelter every afternoon so they could go in and she signs their report cards, paperwork for school, stuff like that."

He looked hard at Gibbs, there was more to tell but he didn't want to say it in front of Robbie and Sarah. Tim told him Ellen rarely slept at the shelter, she was usually gone by the time the kids were asleep. She'd say she was going to get a cup of coffee in the kitchen and take off for the night. Tim didn't care as long as they weren't thrown out. He usually managed to scrounge money from her pack while she was in the bathroom, otherwise she wouldn't contribute at all to the welfare of her own child. And Geordie was afraid Gibbs would ask why they weren't all in foster care already.

Gibbs gave Geordie an almost imperceptible nod; he understood there was more to say, probably not in front of the little kids. They waited in silence, Sarah and Rob curled up on either side of Geordie, sleeping fitfully. Geordie jerked awake when the door to the waiting room creaked open and two men entered. The older of the two nodded to him, glanced at Sarah and Rob and then motioned to Gibbs. Stopping long enough to quietly introduce his boss and colleague to Geordie, Gibbs and the older man left the room leaving the other guy, Agent Carter, behind.

"No news from the docs yet?"

"No, Boss. Last time I checked, I was told it would be another two hours; that was about 90 minutes ago."

"Poor kid. You get something to eat?"

"Yeah, we all did, in the cafeteria."

"Probie, that ain't real food!"

"Way they tore into it was more of any kind of food they'd had in a while."

"Kids should not have to live this way, not in the US, not anywhere!" Franks paused, working to tame his anger and frustration, "We finished the crime scene and the one credible adult witness, Mrs. Jamison, and her kids are on their way to the Yard to see the sketch artist. Gonna put them up at the Navy Lodge tonight and give them a ride back here tomorrow; shelter doors will be closed for the night by the time she's done. You figure out the Navy connection yet?"

"Yeah, Tim's father was a commander, Dan McGee, XO on the Enterprise. Killed in a wreck three years ago with another brother; the little girl says Tim was badly hurt then and from what Geordie said, Tim and Sarah were abandoned afterward."

"Three years ago, wonder if it was before or after the Carrier Strike Group moved to Norfolk. Woulda been some sort of inquiry."

Gibbs absorbed the information, knowing he would be digging through files for the Commander's case and then realized he had that information. "From what the older boy and the sister said, they were in California."

"Before the move then – think the Big E was at NAS Alameda. All right, I'll check into it after we catch the crooked nose bastard. Ms. McKinna approved you taking the kids. When we give her their real surnames, she'll start a search for any relatives. You might have them with you for a while, Jethro. What'd your wife say?"

Gibbs nodded; he'd figured that out already. "That we wouldn't turn down the chance to help these kids. We'll be all right. Might need some help when Tim gets out of the hospital."


	2. Chapter 2

I'm sure I'm joined by everyone reading this in sending positive thoughts and prayers to all affected by Hurricane Harvey. Praying that you and yours are or will be safe and together.

* * *

Chapter 2

They were just turning back to the waiting room when a tired looking man in scrubs approached them. "You folks here for Timothy Brill?"

Gibbs nodded, "I'm his foster father." He showed his badge and ID and the doctor nodded. Gibbs gestured to the door of the waiting room, "His siblings are in there, waiting to hear."

"All right, let's put their minds to rest." The three of them walked into the room where they found Carter telling the little kids a story that was making them smile. Gibbs cleared his throat, "Sarah, Robbie, Geordie, this is Dr. Feeney, he operated on Tim."

The doctor nodded, "Your brother is in the recovery room. That's where people go after surgery to be sure they're all right. The recovery room nurse is taking care of him; making sure your brother's body is recovering from the surgery and she'll give him something for pain when he wakes up. He'll probably be there for another hour while we monitor him. Then he'll be in ICU, that's the Intensive Care Unit, until the danger of infection is past and to ensure we got…everything." The doctor looked at Sarah and Rob who were awake and listening. Gibbs looked at Rick Carter who nodded and the doctor, Gibbs, Franks and Geordie left the room, telling the littles they'd be right back.

Franks frowned at Geordie but Gibbs gave him a fierce look so he let the kid stay, looking at the doctor and asking, "What aren't you saying?"

"When Timothy was stabbed, the knife first went deep and then was lifted partially out and cut across his back, almost as if cutting him in half. The worst of it is the initial entry wound; there was a lot of internal damage that we've repaired. One of his kidneys was grazed by the blade; we'll keep an eye on it and as long as there's no infection it should heal all right."

The doctor paused before continuing, "Agents, that knife went into him with so much force that it was driven into the bone. Part of it broke off as it was driven in, cracking a rib. We removed what we could find and repaired the damage to the muscle and supporting tissue as best we could and the rib will heal completely. We have not yet determined if it was the only piece of the knife to break off but the boy lost a lot of blood and with his overall condition, I felt it wiser to repair everything we could and get him closed. Once he's stronger we can go back in if we find proof there's more of the blade still in him." The doctor sighed, "I was an Army doctor for several years and in my experience, this was a deliberate attack, a premeditated attempt at murder, not random."

Geordie looked sick but stood his ground while Gibbs nodded, he'd wondered about that from the start. "Will he make a complete recovery?"

"With a lot of help, yes. He'll need medication, physical therapy and a lot of TLC. He can't go back to that shelter."

"All four of the kids will be living with my wife and me, Doc. CPS has given us custody as their foster parents."

"Right, you did say you're his foster father, that's good! Now, he'll be in the hospital for at least two weeks, more likely three and he'll need someone with him 24/7 when he's released."

"No problem, we'll take good care of him."

"All right; now we can talk more about this during his recovery but just so you know, he's malnourished and there are signs of previous fractures. If I had to guess, I'd say he survived a fall of some sort." He tilted his head, "I took the opportunity to do a full workup."

Geordie cleared his throat, "He was in a hit and run that killed his father and brother three years ago; he was thrown out of the car. Both his legs were broken, when I met him it was…four months I think after he left the hospital and he had just gotten walking cast boots but couldn't bend his knees very well. He hit his head pretty hard; I think he said he was unconscious for a few weeks."

The doctor frowned, making a mental note to check into that while Franks whipped out his notebook. "Know where that was?"

"Uh…I remember him saying his stepmother took them to San Francisco to the bus station."

Franks muttered, "Right…NAS Alameda across the bay from San Fran. Stepmother…" under his breath as he scribbled.

The doctor left and the three returned to the waiting room where Franks announced he and Carter had the suitcases in their car and they'd move them to the second agency vehicle when it arrived. "Had to free up a couple of agents for tonight. They're probably downstairs."

Gibbs looked at Geordie and the kids, "How about we wait to see Tim go to his room, then we'll be on our way and come back in the morning?" The little kids nodded without opening their eyes and Geordie gave him a weak smile.

The others left and a few minutes later two more agents came in, the overnight detail for Tim. They confirmed they'd transferred four suitcases from Franks' vehicle to the one Gibbs would drive home tonight, handing him the keys. They'd already met with the staff and told the group Tim would be moved in 10 minutes. That was verified by a nurse who poked her head in several minutes later. "Dr. Feeney has authorized a short visit with your brother. He's groggy, that's like being sleepy. Pretty normal for what he's been through, so don't be scared. He might be awake enough to know you're there but he might not be. You can touch his hands but he has a lot of tubes and scary looking things coming out of him. They're all to help him get better as are the machines in with him. His back is too sore for him to lay on so he's on his tummy. Ok?"

She looked at the little kids who nodded. They looked so tired she thought they were probably numb and just wanted to see their big brother. She glanced at the older boy who nodded, "We'll be careful."

The adult who was in there hugged the little girl's shoulders and ruffled the little boy's hair, "He'll be a little better tomorrow and a little better every day when we come to see him."

When she received a signal on her pager, she led them down the hall to a room adjacent to a nurses' station. There was a big window into Tim's room and they could see Dr. Feeney and the medical staff getting him settled. When they were done, everyone came out and the doctor stopped to talk again. "He's doing very well. I told him you're here to see him and he made a little noise, but don't expect him to talk or even say anything you can understand."

Geordie took Sarah and Rob by the hand and walked in, Gibbs following them. The other two agents took their positions outside the door of the room.

Sarah and Rob ran to Tim's side, carefully touching his hand and whispering "Timpa?" Geordie was with them, holding their shoulders. Cloudy green eyes opened slowly, he blinked and smiled. "Hi, kids!" They whispered to him that they loved him and he said, "Me too."

Geordie turned and motioned Agent Gibbs to move closer so Tim could see him. "Timmo, this is Agent Gibbs from NIS. We're going to stay with him until they find the guy who hurt you. He's a Marine and a good guy."

Tim frowned, trying to move his head to see him better but Gibbs moved instead, "Careful, Tim, easier for me to move. I promise to take good care of Sarah, Robbie and Geordie. We won't let anything bad happen to your kids and we'll be here every day to see you."

Tim whispered "Okay", his eyelids slipping down over his eyes.

When they left the hospital, Gibbs carried Sarah and Geordie carried Rob as both kids had reached the end of their endurance. They carefully buckled them into the back seat before heading to the kids' new home. Once at the Gibbs' house, they were carried in and gently laid in bed, with a kiss to the forehead from their new foster mother. Kelly woke up and was disappointed when the new kids who were her age were asleep already but she met Geordie and liked him right away.

Over the next two and a half weeks, they visited Tim daily and as promised, he got a little better each day. By the end of the first week, he was allowed to lay on his right side, much to his relief. He got used to seeing the Gunny every day but they didn't talk much until he could lay on his back. Once he could see the kids holding Gibbs' hands and saw that Geordie trusted him he started hoping things might be all right.

The kids told Tim all about the house and their rooms, how they ate three meals a day at the table together with Kelly, Mrs. Shannon and Gunny when he was home. They put their clothes in a drawer or closet and didn't have to use their cases anymore. Gunny, Geo's name for Gibbs that was quickly adopted by the little kids, quietly reassured older brother that their suitcases were in storage. When Mrs. Shannon and Kelly came to visit, Tim liked them a lot too and again hoped it would be all right.

While Tim was healing, Gunny and the 4 kids (Kelly didn't want to miss anything) worked on Tim's room, getting it ready for him. Right now, he'd have it to himself but when he was better Gunny thought the two older boys might want to share. He'd found Geordie, Rob and Sarah curled up in one bed their first night and understood that right now the new kids would probably sleep better if they shared.

When the big day finally arrived, they blew up balloons and tied some onto the front porch; more were in the house and in Tim's room. They were early getting to the hospital because Tim needed help getting dressed and Geordie said he wouldn't want anyone else to touch him. That made sense to the Gibbses and Mrs. Shannon and Gunny took the 'littles' with them to get the discharge papers signed while Geo helped Tim. They'd taken all three foster kids shopping for new clothes and shoes but Geordie insisted on bringing some of Tim's old clothes for him to wear home. He knew if everything was too perfect or too new Tim would worry about paying for it all.

Geordie was right, Tim was already worried, his hope and good feelings overwhelmed by his doubts and skepticism. He didn't know if he was expected to repay these people for everything or how he'd do that, how long they'd be staying with the family, where they'd go next or if they'd eventually be separated.

One of the ways Tim had kept them going was by thinking things through ahead of time. He'd learned to anticipate trouble, always expect the worst and figure how to deal with it. Being stuck in the hospital gave him plenty of time to consider all the horrors that might be ahead. The kids and Geo seemed content but he was afraid that could change at any moment and they'd be back on the streets, which would be better than being separated. He was determined to do everything the doctor told him to so he'd be strong and healthy; he could take care of the kids on his own if any of his fears came true.

As Gunny pulled the car into a driveway, Tim looked out anxiously and felt a little better when he saw the balloons. These people were nice, if Social Services left them alone, didn't move or separate them, maybe it'd be okay for a while, at least until he was stronger.

Gunny helped Tim out of the car, handing him the cane he'd need to use until he regained his strength. While they tried not to hover, Gunny and Mrs. Shannon walked closely behind Tim in case he needed help. Shannon looked at her husband as they covered the short distance between car and house. While Tim was polite neither had missed his obvious worry and doubt; they hoped they would earn his trust and affection.

While Tim was skeptical due to his experiences, it didn't take him long to understand these people were the real deal. None of the new fosters remembered a mother who kissed them goodnight and good morning, who praised, teased and scolded them, washed their clothes, made them eat their vegetables and baked them cookies, played with them, sang with them, brushed their hair off their foreheads and taught them how to do all kinds of things from cooking to ironing to various games and making whistles out of leaves.

While Tim and Geo remembered their fathers, Tim's had been mostly an absentee dad and Geo's an alcoholic who sometimes forgot he had a young son. Tim was the only parental figure Sarah and Rob had. Now they all had Gunny. He was affectionate with them, reading stories to the littles, ruffling hair, played with them, gave warm hugs and expressed pride in them. With Kelly and Mrs. Shannon's help, Gunny taught the four kids how to tie flies for fly-fishing and carefully practiced casting in the backyard, Sarah and Rob sharing Kelly's rig with her.

Once Tim was stronger and was cleared to use the stairs, he and Geo were invited to the basement to learn the basics of woodworking, the Gunny's hobby. Between the three of them, they decided to make toys for the shelter and camp kids. Tim and Geo learned how to draw patterns, measure, always measuring twice, use a saw and many of Gunny's tools. When their foster grandfather, Grandpa Jack visited, they proudly showed him what they'd done.

In the meantime, the littles, that is Kelly, Rob and Sarah, quickly became best friends. They played well together and Shannon found herself in awe of the McGee children's behavior. Tim had certainly taught them well. While he was recovering in the hospital, the other three transferred to schools near the Gibbs' home and did well the last few weeks of the school term. Although just finishing first grade, Sarah was reading at a 4th grade level while Rob was in kindergarten, reading at a 3rd grade level. Once Tim was at home recovering, he worked with all three of the littles on their reading and math. He was happy to be part of the Gibbs' family, happy not to have to worry about finding food and clothing, about keeping the littles safe; he told Geordie his very favorite thing was having a mom and dad to tuck him into bed and kiss him goodnight.

Given the nutrition, therapy and perhaps most importantly the tender loving care the doctor prescribed, Tim made good progress in his recovery and once school was out for the summer the family decided to celebrate by spending a few days at Sandy Point State Park in Maryland. They'd thought to stay in a motel but a friend of the family offered a house close to the park that would be more comfortable for the 7 of them. One of the agents at NIS offered his RV to the family for the trip, which meant the 3-hour ride each way would be more comfortable for Tim's still tender back. With their transportation and shelter all set, the family set out on their adventure.

They had a wonderful time at the beach on beautiful Chesapeake Bay and although Gibbs originally thought the children would be disappointed with the lack of big waves, he was happy to be proved wrong. Except for Kelly, none of the kids remembered any trips to the ocean or any kind of beach. They were thrilled with everything! The house they stayed in was a bit snug for all of them but as Geo said no one who'd ever stayed in a shelter or transient camp would even notice, much less complain. They chuckled at that and Tim pointed out that anything other than a tent was wonderful as far as they were concerned. When Gunny asked if that meant camping was out, Geo and Tim looked at each other and then back at the man, shrugging. Tim said thoughtfully, "Maybe not, ask us again in a few months." When both Mrs. Shannon and Gunny smiled, he knew he'd said the right thing. He and Geo talked about it later, deciding that camping for fun in a tent would probably be a lot different from huddling in sleeping bags on the cold ground in tents at a homeless camp.

Another weekend found them at the zoo in Washington D.C, although without Gunny as his team was pulled into work. Shannon wasn't worried, she knew by this time the two older boys were more than enough help with the younger kids.

Picnics near one of the many creeks in the area were a favorite family outing. Once they'd eaten, they'd go 'creek walking', followed by a game of Frisbee, softball or tag. Gunny and Mrs. Shannon taught them how to play "Red Light, Green Light", a form of tag, and the kids were good at it. They really loved it when they could tag Gunny 'out'.

The summer passed and preparations began for a new school year. Kelly and Rob would be in first grade, Sarah in second while Geo would return to the local high school as a sophomore. Much to Shannon and Gunny's amazement, Tim tested in the same percentile as Geordie and was eligible to start as a sophomore.

After much discussion between the adults, school counselors and the boys themselves, a decision was made that Tim would start as a freshman. Because everyone in his class would be new to the high school, coming in from several junior highs or middle schools, they believed that would be better for Tim socially.

Once classes started, he'd be placed in an advanced track. That meant he could move ahead at his own pace while still officially being a member of the freshman class. He'd have homeroom, language, physical education and social sciences with his classmates while English, history, the various science and math classes and some electives would be in the advanced track.

Tim's problem was certainly not disinterest, the Gibbses were amused and a little frustrated to find that he wanted to take nearly every class offered, except physical education. While he continued his physical therapy, he wasn't yet cleared for any sport or gym class, which was fine with Tim. He hoped to be strong enough to play baseball in the spring but he wasn't crazy about other sports. Then he was cleared for swimming, although not jumping or diving, and found he loved it, hoping he'd be good enough to join the swim team once he was fully recovered.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

While the kids settled into their new lives and new family, CPS and NIS joined forces to track down any living relatives of the McGee siblings, Geordie Perry and Robbie Brill. The Gibbses hoped to adopt whoever stayed with them, preferably all four, although they hadn't yet shared that with the kids.

For NIS, part of searching for the kids' relatives meant reopening the investigation into the McGees' car crash. When Franks read the file, he was so angry that he had to leave the building before he exploded and was suspended or fired, doing no one any good. When he returned, his team gathered in a conference room, he spoke through gritted teeth, "This case should have been successfully closed instead of being allowed to go cold within 3 weeks."

He had his agents review the file and two pairs of eyes widened as they read it, including the agent's personal notes at the end. The investigating agent had been pulled by his supervisor when he suspected Commander McGee's Russian wife of the hit and run murder of the Commander and his _three_ children. Riley McCallister, the supervisor, wanted to keep watch on Natalie McGee, the wife, and ordered the agent to drop the case, leaving the children unprotected and ultimately abandoned while a probable murderess walked free. When the agents read further, they were astonished at the statement that all three children died in or because of the crash.

The investigating agent noted that the evidence he'd gathered had been sent to storage: samples of paint left on the two vehicles belonging to Dan McGee and Natalie McGee. There was paint transfer on each car and Agent McCallister refused to request a warrant for Natalie McGee's vehicle. There were also witness accounts by neighbors of a loud argument earlier the day of the hit and run in which the Commander was heard to say he was getting a divorce; signed witness statements were in the file. A report that the youngest child Sarah wasn't even in the car but at a play date and further doubts about the whereabouts of the middle child, Patrick. While human bones and bone fragments were found at the crash site, there didn't seem to be enough to account for one adult and two children. Blood, tissue samples and a child's sock were found nearby, in a different location than where Timothy McGee was found. According to the hospital records and photos, Timothy McGee arrived at the hospital with socks on both feet. A suspicion about the doctor who reported the death of young Timothy to the agent. A comment by one of the nurses caring for the boy in the days before his alleged death about a chaplain who seemed to know more than he should have - and missing syringes. The lack of a marriage license registered anywhere for Commander McGee and Natalie Volkov. The lack of post-mortem on any of the crash victims, including Timothy. The lack of any contact with the surviving family, two sets of grandparents, an uncle on each side of the family and the Navy officer and his wife who were godparents and the specified guardians for all three McGee children. And finally, the quick disappearance of Natalie McGee and virtually everything belonging to the family from the McGees' home on NAS Alameda.

The file review complete, Franks quickly issued orders. "I want to question the godfather, Captain Crane, and the two grandfathers, Admiral McGee and Andrew Hubbard. These people were family; we need to question them separately so they can't contact each other. If you can't get the men, talk with their wives. I want to know what they know before we crown the stepmother as the murderer. And follow up on that missing marriage certificate."

"Should we tell them about the kids or the kids about them?"

"Neither, not yet. I want to be sure we have the right dirt bag tagged before we do that."

The agents dispersed to their assigned tasks only to run into serious challenges, aside from the length of time since the crash. Andrew Hubbard had died 3 months before and his widow, the children's maternal grandmother Maisie Hubbard, was in her native Scotland for an extended visit with her family. They lived on a remote island and communication was spotty at best. Captain Crane was at sea, in command of a ship currently on radio silence and the Navy repeatedly denied NIS's request to break that silence. Lt. Commander Hubbard, the children's uncle on their mother's side, served aboard the same ship. The Captain's wife Elizabeth and children were out of touch, traveling with friends.

The children's paternal grandfather, Admiral Nelson McGee, was also deceased, a sudden, fatal heart attack a year ago. His widow, Penelope Langston, was traveling in areas of the world without stable communications and from the reports the agents got, would not be likely to respond to efforts by the U.S. Navy to contact her. Unfortunately, the poor woman had also lost her sole remaining family, her son Mark, Tim and Sarah's uncle. He'd died in a shipboard accident shortly before his father's demise.

Realizing they had no choice but to wait for at least one relative of the McGees to surface, and running into dead ends as far as any relatives of Geordie or the whereabouts of Ellen Brill, the team concentrated on getting everything else about the case tied up. They wouldn't make any final decisions until they'd spoken to the family but the evidence was pointing them in one direction: Natalie.

As suspected, the investigation into Tim's stabbing led them to evidence that it had been planned as a murder for hire and their best suspect for the puppet master was again Natalie. Bayopolis PD quoted informants as saying there was a contract out on a kid and his younger sister and the more trustworthy ones provided nicknames and descriptions of the guy they thought was hired for the job.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Eventually, Child Protective Services connected with Tim and Sarah's guardians and relatives. After waiting several weeks for NIS and unhampered by any orders from the U.S. Navy, D'Arcy McKinna wrote letters to David and Elizabeth Crane, Andrew and Maisie Hubbard, with a copy to their son James, and Nelson and Penelope McGee, with a copy to their son Mark, informing them of the children's survival and current whereabouts. The letters to the Cranes and Hubbards were forwarded to, respectively, an American Express office in Athens, Greece, where Liz Crane planned to pick up mail during her travels and a small town on the remote island of Papavray in the Scottish Hebrides where Maisie Hubbard was visiting. The letter to Mark McGee was returned to sender marked 'deceased'. The letter addressed to the senior McGees was forwarded several times but never reached Penelope Langston McGee. Maisie and Liz read their letters with astonishment and joy, arranging to return home, each wiring Ms. McKinna that she would be there as soon as possible. When the CPS officer received the telegrams, she contacted the Gibbses.

It was Friday night and Grandpa Jack was in town; he'd taken all five of the kids out for pizza and a movie, giving his son and daughter-in-law some much needed time alone. They'd had a quiet dinner and were dancing in the living room to some of their favorite tunes when the phone rang. Grimacing, Jethro answered it, expecting a summons to work or worse, a call from his mother-in-law, who thoroughly disapproved of him and the foster children. Instead, it was D'Arcy McKinna with news that chased away all romantic thoughts. The McGee kids' guardians and relatives were on their way to the U.S. and Jethro, Shannon, Kelly and Grandpa Jack were about to lose at least two of their beloved fosterlings.

Hearing the pain in the voices of the children's foster parents, D'Arcy tried to soften the blow by telling them there would be interviews, background checks and paperwork before the Cranes or Mrs. Hubbard would be allowed to even meet with Tim and Sarah. It would be weeks, possibly months before they could meet and longer before the Cranes could take custody. Even though the late Commander McGee had specified the Cranes as guardians for his children, establishing the guardianship meant plenty of legal work, culminating in a court appearance before a judge. With the Cranes living in the Philippines, there would be more paperwork involved and possibly shots and vaccinations that would have to occur. Most importantly, they'd need Dr. Feeney's signoff as to Tim's recovery.

None of that helped Shannon and Jethro; they knew they were losing Tim and Sarah and possibly Geordie and Rob as well. They'd lived with them for close to 5 months now and although they'd known it was very probably temporary, that was easy to forget in their daily lives. They winced as they thought of Kelly's reaction to losing her new siblings; for years, they'd hoped and tried for another child of their own, with no success. Deciding to say nothing that night, they clung together, each trying to comfort the other.


	3. Chapter 3

Warning: canon deaths occur (off screen) in this chapter.

Chapter 3

It did take time, even more than Ms. McKinna predicted. There were concerns about once again uprooting the children during the school term; the bureaucracy crawled forward, handling paperwork, background checks, interviews and meetings being held and decisions made without any input from the children. The U.S. Navy eventually gave up their stalling and in an about face ordered Captain Crane to contact his wife. Their mission successfully completed, the Captain's ship returned to port where Captain David Crane and Lieutenant James Hubbard were granted leave.

When told their guardians and relatives had been found and were in the process of being approved to meet with them, Tim had a meltdown and Sarah followed him right into it. In no time, the four kids were inconsolably upset, sad and angry that they had to leave the Gibbses, certain they were about to be torn apart, something Tim had fought hard against during the years on the street. He didn't want to see these people; as far as he was concerned, they'd abandoned them just as Natalie had.

The Gunny explained what had happened: in the days following the hit and run, the Carrier Group assigned to the Enterprise moved from Alameda to Norfolk VA. At the time of the wreck, their grandfather the Admiral, their guardian the Captain and both uncles were at sea. Their grandfather Hubbard suffered a stroke when told of the wreck and their grandmother was too distraught to do anything.

When Natalie told them of the deaths of their loved ones, there was so much chaos between the move and Andrew Hubbard's debilitating stroke that no one questioned her. She'd explained that following Russian custom, she'd already had the funerals and the four McGees were buried in a family plot at a military cemetery just south of San Francisco. Nobody investigated to see if that was indeed a Russian custom – or confirmed anything else she told them.

Tim didn't care what story he was told, he swore he'd never forgive them; he wasn't going. A call was placed to Ms. McKinna, who arrived in a few minutes to speak with them. When Tim said he didn't want to go, the bureaucratic process came to a dead stop.

Because he was over the age of 10, Tim had the right to disagree with the legal guardianship as set out by his late father. Ms. McKinna listened, promising to let the Cranes and Hubbards know his feelings and concerns.

Without involving the children, the Cranes, Hubbards, Penny Langston, who'd finally wandered home, and the adult Gibbses met at the CPS office to discuss the situation. While the Cranes, Penny and the Hubbards were heartsick at everything that had happened and understood why Tim felt they'd abandoned him and Sarah just as Natalie had, they wanted to bring the kids into their families. Penny and Maisie Hubbard, their grandmothers, had a particularly difficult time not being able to see them.

Jethro and Shannon were overwhelmed, realizing that in the end it would be best for Tim and Sarah to be raised by their godparents. They had the memories, the familial connections, plenty of love and the financial ability to do so while Shannon felt their only offering was love and a promise to do their best. Eventually, the families decided to work together to help the kids. They planned a series of meals at the Hubbards', Penny's, at the Gibbses' and weekend outings, always including all the adults.

The first joint gatherings needed to happen quickly as Capt. Crane and Lt. Cmdr. Hubbard's leaves were short; they'd soon have to return to their ship in the Philippines.

They decided the first meeting would be on 'neutral' territory, the CPS office. Gunny and Mrs. Shannon talked with Tim beforehand, stressing to him that he needed to give these people a chance, that they had mourned Sarah and him for more than three years now. Tim understood that Sarah would follow his lead and promised to be on good behavior. He would not be rude but he would not promise anything more than that; he still blamed them.

The Gibbses took all five of the kids to the meeting, which would be a deli lunch in a conference room at CPS. Shannon led the way, then Tim with Sarah tightly holding his hand, Rob, Geordie and Kelly following with Gunny bringing up the rear. When they were all in the room, Shannon introduced Tim and Sarah to their grandmothers, uncle and godparents. Tim stiffly shook their hands and Sarah followed his lead, never getting more than an inch away from her brother. When the other kids were introduced, they also followed Tim's lead, making sure they were polite if not friendly.

Tim answered politely when they asked him questions; when Sarah was asked, she looked to Tim for a nod before answering. Tim sat down on a sofa and Sarah scooted right onto Tim's lap; he wrapped his arms around her and both felt a little more secure. The only time either smiled was when Rob, Geordie and Kelly sat next to them on the sofa. Poor Robbie was terrified and only relaxed when Tim pulled him onto his lap with Sarah.

Their former family watched them, joyous in their survival, saddened and guilty that the children were so uncomfortable with them. The kids were shown pictures of them with the people here in the room and both nodded politely without comment. Tim blinked back tears at the photos with Patrick but was stony-faced when shown photos of his father, putting them face down on a small table next to the sofa. Someday maybe he'd ask these people where they'd been when his father dumped Natalie on them. Finally, lunch arrived and the kids took one end of the table, still more or less huddling together. The only comment Tim had afterward was that he liked that he and Uncle Jim looked alike.

Two days later, they had dinner at Penny's and the kids were a little warmer, curious about the large house. When Uncle Jim ruffled Tim's hair, he got a smile out of his nephew and that gave the combined Langston-Crane-Hubbard family hope.

The following weekend, the Gibbs' family, including Grandpa Jack, piled into the Gibbs-mobile, as they jokingly called the minivan, and headed out for a surprise weekend on the shore. While it was mid-October, the weather had been unseasonably warm and the adults hoped that would hold through the weekend.

By that time, the Cranes-Langston-Hubbards knew more about Rob, Geordie and Ms. McKinna's belief that any possibility of Tim agreeing to the guardianship would exist only if the two boys were included. The weekend was a success in that it gave the families a chance to relax together and have some fun for more than a couple of hours at a time. The kids spent time with the Cranes, Penny and the Hubbards and each day the whole group had at least one meal together. It wasn't anywhere near perfect or even always pleasant but it was a start.

When it was time to leave for home, the Captain and Lt. Commander told them goodbye, they were flying back to Subic Bay. The adults almost all held their breaths when all five of the children hugged the two men. That was a huge step forward!

What the kids weren't told was that their 'other' family was stopping in Bayopolis on the way to the airport to visit the shelter and homeless camp, responding to a suggestion made by Ms. McKinna. After a tour of the shelter and the camp, they met with some of the folks there and spoke at length with Ms. Lu and Nate. While it certainly didn't alleviate any of their guilt, it did give them insight into how all four of the kids had had to live, had survived. A particularly heartbreaking moment was when the two grandmothers spotted the photo of the kids on the kitchen wall. Taken their first day at the shelter, the kids looked scared and exhausted.

While Tim, Sarah and the other kids were becoming more comfortable with them, the families talked long and hard, finally all agreeing that it would be in the kids' best interests if all four were taken in by the Cranes. The trip to Bayopolis cemented that decision.

Before they could leave the U.S., a judge would have to approve the guardianship of the McGee kids and the adoption of Geordie Perry and Rob Brill. The Gibbses told Kelly who did not take the news well at all, declaring that she hated the Cranes forever, eventually moving those negative feelings to the real culprit, Natalie. She didn't much care who was responsible, at age 5 she only understood she was losing her new sister and brothers.

Once the bureaucracy started grinding away again, this time with new fodder with the two additional children, time passed with more paperwork, interviews, etc. By the time they were given a court date to meet with the judge, it was Thanksgiving. Wanting the kids to remember a Gibbs' Thanksgiving, the family drove up to Grandpa Jack's the weekend before, celebrating the holiday early. Back in Virginia for the actual holiday, the Gibbses and the kids joined with the others at Penny's house for more turkey.

Because the search for Ellen Brill, Rob's birth mother, hadn't been thorough enough to satisfy the judge, their court date was pushed out to mid-December. When Liz Crane heard that her husband and Jim Hubbard would be afloat over Christmas, the decision was made to stay in the U.S. for the holidays.

Gunny and Mrs. Shannon tried not to show their glee. They still retained custody of the four and were thrilled to have them for Christmas. Yes, they'd have to share but they would split the holiday between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and make it work. With the kids somewhat comfortable with the other family, they'd been spending an occasional night at Penny's home. Now they'd have Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at the Gibbses, complete with Grandpa Jack and probably Agent Mike. The rest of Christmas Day would be spent at Penny's, along with the Gibbses. However, the kids, minus Kelly, would stay overnight.

The day after Christmas, they'd all visit the shelter and camp, taking the toys Gunny and the boys finished, food, warm blankets, sleeping bags, clothing and anything else they could stuff in the cars.

The first week in January found them back in court. The judge approved the additional efforts to find Ellen Brill and asked all four children to approach the bench.

He looked at them. "This has been quite a time for the four of you. You've gone from being homeless to having two families who love you and want to raise you. Now, Timothy, the decision is yours. I'm satisfied that all the legal work has been completed and more importantly, that you've had a chance to get to know your godparents, grandmothers and uncle. Are you willing to become part of the McGee family?"

Tim stood straight, in a 'parade rest' posture taught him by Dan McGee, "We've talked about it a lot, Your Honor, the four of us. I realize now that my dad, my original dad, planned for the Cranes to take care of us if something happened to him. That's why he made them our godparents, too. And they were tricked into believing we were dead, it wasn't their fault.

"We love Mrs. Shannon, Gunny and Kelly, they were our first mother, father and sister; we'll love them forever and we hope we can come stay with them sometimes and they come visit us too." He faltered for a minute before continuing, "Yes, we four have decided to accept the adoption by the Cranes."

The judge nodded. "That's very adult thinking, young man. I do still have to ask each of you."

Tim and Geordie nodded while Sarah and Rob watched them carefully. The judge asked Tim, "Timothy Farragut McGee, do you accept the adoption by David and Elizabeth Crane?"

"Yes, your Honor."

"Very well, now I see you have a name change too. From now on, you shall be known as Timothy Gibbs Crane. Sarah Elizabeth McGee, do you accept the adoption by David and Elizabeth Crane?"

Sarah nodded and then realized she was supposed to talk, "Yes, Judge."

"Very well, from now on you shall be known as Sarah Gibbs Crane. Rob Brill, do you accept the adoption by David and Elizabeth Crane?"

Rob was holding Tim's hand and answered when he got a little squeeze, "Yes, Sir."

"Very well, from now on you shall be known as Rob Gibbs Crane. Geordie Reid Perry, do you accept the adoption by David and Elizabeth Crane?"

"Yes, your Honor."

"Very well and I see you've opted to keep your original surname so you'll be Geordie Reid Gibbs Perry, that's fine young man."

He smiled at the four, shaking hands with each of them. "I know this has been a tough time and a very difficult decision for the four of you. I congratulate you for sticking together and for your willingness to give the Cranes and the rest of your new family a chance."

He turned to the gallery, "Mrs. Crane, I understand the Captain is not able to be here today?"

She nodded, "Correct, your honor." They all turned as the courtroom door opened noisily and the Captain nearly ran in.

"Pardon my late arrival, Sir, took longer than I thought to convince the Navy that I absolutely had to be here!" He reached his wife and stood, looking anxious.

The judge nodded, "The children have agreed to the adoption, Captain. They are now officially yours." He paused, "I can't make this a legal order, they're either adopted or they're not, but I hope that you will arrange visits with the Gibbses."

The Cranes, Maisie and Penny nodded solemnly.

He looked at Shannon who was crying and Jethro who was trying not to. The kids' taking Gibbs as their middle name was a complete surprise.

"Normally this is one of my favorite things to do, see children being adopted by loving families. Today, I'm happy for the Cranes and sad for you. I want to thank you two and your daughter for your willingness to let the children decide, to have the wisdom and strength to give them up."

They nodded and tried to smile at the Cranes and the others as they turned to embrace them. The kids' decision wasn't a surprise, the children told them the day before, figuring it was only fair. Part of their reasoning, they'd said, was that now that they'd be gone, Mrs. Shannon and Gunny could foster some other kids who needed a home and love as much, maybe even more than they had. Not every foster child had two families waiting for them.

Returning to the house to collect their belongings and say goodbye to Kelly was the second hardest thing Tim had ever had to do, the first being the decision to go with the Cranes. Ms. McKinna had prepared the kids for leaving; she'd told them there was no easy or best way to do it, but that the quicker they said goodbye and left, the better. Their new suitcases were already packed and waiting for them.

This was it; they were officially leaving their family. They were given last kisses, hugs and hair ruffles from Kelly and the foster parents who had come to their rescue when they'd desperately needed them. Tim thought he'd never smile again, his heart was broken; not only were they leaving the Gibbs family, they were moving thousands of miles away.

From the Gibbses, they went to Penny's where they'd stay until their flight the following week. The kids thought it was strange; when they were homeless they'd talked and dreamed about buying a big white house to live in and help other homeless children when they were grown. This place looked exactly like that big white house.

They all helped get their luggage inside and took them to the rooms they'd stayed in when visiting. Back downstairs, they found Ms. McKinna waiting for them.

"Now kids, listen. You're missing a few days of school so I have all your schoolbooks and plenty of assignments from your teachers. You'll be doing schoolwork every day. I want you to promise me to keep up your good work and your mom will check on it for you. Now if anything - _anything_ \- happens that makes you uncomfortable, you call me immediately, I don't care what time it is. And you know to call 9-1-1 for emergencies."

Nodding at their former caseworker, they promised and hugged her goodbye as she left, then headed back upstairs to unpack some of their clothes. Then they washed up and went back downstairs for dinner, wondering what would come next.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

They stayed at their grandmother McGee's house in Virginia for a few days before making the long journey to Subic Bay. There it took some time but eventually the four felt at home in the Crane family, welcomed by Dad, Mom and their newest siblings, 17-year-old twins Carol and Bill.

Back at school, the kids slowly began to accept their new lives. They wrote letters to their former foster family, telling them about their new adventures, always sending love, photos and wishes that they could all live together. The Gibbs family also wrote and Kelly, Rob and Sarah frequently exchanged pictures they'd drawn.

Bill and Carol graduated from high school at the end of that school year and their maternal grandmother took them to Europe. While they were away, Dad received orders for Guam so the family packed up and moved from the Philippines to their new post. The four siblings were excited to experience another country. Tim vaguely remembered Okinawa and knew he'd also lived in Puerto Rico as a baby but now he'd have memories of two additional countries.

In the meantime, they heard Gunny had been recalled to active duty and transferred to Camp Pendleton in California. Mrs. Shannon, Kelly and their new fosters, the kids' friends from the camp, Barry, Freddie and Jose, followed him. New photos and letters were exchanged between the two families and Kelly sent a photo of the new birdbath they'd made, complete with their hand prints.

A few months later Captain Crane was again re-assigned and the Cranes left Guam for Souda Bay, on the island of Crete. Four months later, the Captain was transferred to Australia where they'd be stationed for a year or more.

Several weeks after their move, a little more than two years since they'd left the U.S., the kids were upset when letters they'd written to the Gibbses were returned as undeliverable. Their mother wrote Agent Franks and received a note in reply. Agent Mike reported sadly that the Gunny had died in an explosion in Kuwait and Shannon and Kelly were killed shortly after in a car crash in California. Barry, Freddie and Jose had been separated into new foster homes; he included the boys' addresses.

Devastated when she read the news, Liz Crane asked the kids' Uncle Jim to take the children for a couple of days, telling him that she and Dave needed some time alone. Uncle Jim loved having the kids to himself; they were a lot of fun. However, this time he knew something was wrong.

Liz felt she and Dave needed to mourn, to absorb the news and figure out how to tell their children. Reeling from the triple loss, the couple held onto each other, knowing they had to come to terms with it before they told the kids.

They sat them down when they returned from their uncle's and read the letter to them. The siblings, now 17, 14, 8 and 7, were devastated and inconsolable. Eventually they requested that they have a church service for their lost family, a memorial service with prayers said by them and the rest of the congregation for their lost family.

Afterward, they worked together to create a memorial in the garden of their home with pictures, letters and flowers for their Gibbses. Remembering Kelly's photo of the birdbath, they also made one and included Gunny, Mrs. Shannon and Kelly's names as well as all the Cranes and Hubbards. As heavy as it was, whenever and wherever they moved that birdbath went with them.

End of Part One


	4. Chapter 4

Momcat: the gullibility of Tim and Sarah's family towards Natalie and her lies remains consistent with At What Price and other 'verses. Same with the naiveté (and pride) of Dan McGee. For a little about his thoughts, take a look at the Prologue for 'The Letter'.

* * *

Part Two

Chapter 4

Tim grinned as he waved an envelope in his sister's face. "It's here…the offer from NCIS!"

She smiled, "Yay, just what you wanted."

Members of the Crane, Langston and Hubbard family were spending the weekend together in Georgia after Tim's graduation from FLETC. Fifteen-year-old Sarah and fourteen-year-old Rob teased their mother and grandmothers about all the family graduations. The twins had kicked off a seemingly endless round with their college graduations, followed by Geo and Tim's high school graduation. Two years later Geordie received his Associate Degree, planning to go for his Bachelors of Arts degree in history before fulfilling his dream of becoming a Marine. The following year Tim received his undergraduate Bachelor's of Science degree at Johns Hopkins, the year after that was Geordie's BA. Next came Sarah's graduation from middle school and then Tim's Master's at MIT. There were a dizzying number of celebrations!

Between the frequent moves following their father, now an Admiral, school changes and the older children leaving the nest for college, family reunions with the entire clan were rare. Dad and Uncle Jim made it to as many of the graduations as they could but attending them all was impossible.

When Uncle Jim married a woman named Claire, the entire family managed to get to the wedding. She quickly became "Aunt Claire", a treasured member of the family and a daughter to Maisie. The younger ones were particularly glad when their cousins were born, first Ainsley followed a couple of years later by Callum. Rob and Sarah were more than happy to give up their spots as the youngest kids of the family.

Now, glad to be home in the States for a few weeks between their move from Singapore to Naples, Liz laughed at her two youngest. It was certainly true that when Tim got his Master's she'd thought that was the last of his graduations. She should have known better, after all, Geordie had done much the same thing. Graduating with his BA, he'd been accepted to the USMC Officer Candidate School, also known as OCS, and graduated from there, a ceremony she was happy her husband could attend.

She wondered where Tim would be located. She knew NIS (she shook her head, remembering the agency was now _NCIS)_ had locations in the U.S. and around the globe where the Navy or Marines had a presence. She sighed, knowing Dave wouldn't be in Naples very long. With his promotion to Admiral, his duties had changed considerably. She wouldn't mind if they were based in Norfolk; Dave would be afloat most of the year but it would be great if she and their two youngest could be close to their grandmothers and possibly Tim.

She daydreamed of buying a house in Virginia, a place the kids could come home to rather than chasing each other around the planet. She laughed to herself; with Carol working and studying in Johannesburg, Bill splitting his time between Edinburgh and London, Geo in the Marines involved in advanced training for Special Operations and Tim about to join another global outfit, they'd be lucky to see any of the older kids.

She huffed in amazement, realizing the only times she and Dave had been in the U.S. since they'd returned to Subic Bay with the kids was for someone's graduation. Once they were all well and truly launched, she hoped their gatherings would be for weddings and the births of her grandchildren.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The Monday following the FLETC celebration, Tim accepted the job offer from NCIS. Meeting with Director Morrow, he outlined his unusual life story and the man asked him to write it up; they'd include it in his file. He wanted to be a field agent but Morrow thought he should start as a case agent, which would give him an opportunity to observe and explore what he wanted to do with the agency. A department dedicated to handling cybercrimes was under discussion and Morrow thought the young man would be perfect for that.

Tim understood his entry into fieldwork would have to wait, if it ever happened. Disappointed but determined to do whatever was necessary to achieve his goal, he accepted the position as a case agent at the Norfolk office.

He loved his new life! After years of academics and moving around the world with his family, he had both feet planted firmly on the ground. Not sure how long he'd be in Norfolk, he played it safe, renting the least expensive apartment in the best location. Gram Maisie came to help him pick out furniture, linens and all the other things apparently needed for a young bachelor. He loved spending time with her even if some of her choices would not have been his. They weren't flowery or anything, just not his style. Still, he felt at home.

His job was interesting to learn and he had a tiny office that he was sure had been a broom closet the week before he started there. Once he learned his job he found he was a little bored and paid more attention to what his co-workers did, finding out everything he could about being a field agent. And then he was called out for his first dead body, a really gross dead body left in a vat of acid.

Knowing that the case was beyond his knowledge and his pay grade he did everything by the book before calling in the MCRT from the DC Navy Yard. He was a little nervous about that, he'd heard stories about the agent in charge of the team, known in Norfolk as Special Agent Grump. He was so afraid he'd blurt out the name when he called dispatch aboard the Navy Yard that he asked for the Team Lead of the MCRT.

While he waited for the field agents, he continued to follow protocol, donning mask and gloves to deal with the dead body. He was chagrined to find none of the MCRT agents seemed to think those were necessary but he kept them on. When he got nauseous, he sat on a hard case, which was unceremoniously pulled out from under him. He mentally shrugged; everything about this case was a learning experience for him.

When the male agent, what was his name again, anyway, when he ordered him to stay with the crime scene overnight, Tim knew he was being hazed and just nodded, with no intention of standing guard duty himself. He called the Shore Patrol and arranged for them to provide an overnight guard.

He tried to warn Special Agent Grump about Captain Veitch and then stood his ground when the man got in his face. Did they think he was that much of a newbie or a complete pushover? Director Morrow knew who his father was but he hadn't mentioned it to anyone else, wanting to succeed or fail on his own. He and his dad had lengthy discussions about joining NCIS and being the son of an Admiral. When Tim decided to use his original name, Timothy McGee, both parents were supportive.

By the time the case was solved Tim was again in love with the idea of being a field agent, determined to prove to Grump and himself that he could do the job and do it well. Over the next several months, he found opportunities to help the MCRT in various ways. He helped Agent Todd on a protection detail and learned that field agents make mistakes just like the rest of humanity. He worked with the team when they needed tech support or an extra pair of hands. He briefly dated the beautiful, brilliant and quirky forensics scientist who ran the lab at HQ and although he broke it off for various reasons, he still enjoyed working with her.

He soaked up everything and nearly a year later was ecstatic when the Team Lead told him he was being transferred aboard the Navy Yard to be a real field agent on the MCRT! He interpreted the man's words, "You belong to me now" as something his dad might say to a new officer, that he pretty much owned his time while he was a member of Dad's crew or in this case the MCRT.

When he told his parents that he was moving to the DC Metro area, his mom offered to help. Remembering his experience with his grandmother, he thanked her, inviting her to come visit the finished product. He found a one bedroom in Silver Spring, a DC suburb that suited him just fine. While the living area was small, it was large enough to house his growing collection of first edition books and signature record albums. He had no idea how that had started; usually he was one of the first in line for the newest tech toy. Although he owned an iPod, he loved the feel and sound of the old vinyl.

Discovering the bedroom was large enough for a king-sized bed, he splurged on a California King, using gift money from his college graduations. It was worth every penny to be able to stretch out without his feet hanging off the bed. He sold most of the furniture from his Norfolk place before he moved, he still didn't feel like it fit him and he didn't see any reason to keep it, he was far more likely to visit his grandmother than she was to visit him. With his hobby, repairing and building desktop computers, plus his bookshelves, there wasn't room for much furniture anyway. There was a breakfast counter so he didn't need a table; once he bought bar stools, he was done. The price on the place was low enough that he could save a substantial amount every month, his goal to eventually buy a home of his own. With the hours the team kept he didn't think he'd be at the apartment all that much anyway.

Getting used to spending entire days and weeks with Agent DiNozzo was one of the hardest things. The guy sure loved to hear his own voice! And the pranks, he figured it was new guy hazing and for a while, he put up with it. The first time the man used superglue on him, Tim shrugged it off. The second time, he decided to fight back and played an offsite 'prank' on DiNozzo that shut down the pranks for months. The time he'd done as a TAD for the MCRT had been spent watching and learning what made the Senior Field Agent tick. The first thing Tim figured out was that the man was great at dishing it out but turned into an unhappy whiny baby when the tables were turned. He truly could not handle a taste of his own medicine.

Once the pranks stopped, Tim relaxed just a bit although he never truly let his guard down. When the man started inventing a life for Tim, one where he played online games for days on end, Tim didn't contradict him. He much preferred to let DiNozzo think what he wanted and keep his nose out of his personal life. And so Tim had parties, went to other people's parties, dated cheerleaders and librarians, wrote and published books and generally led a full life outside of work, when he had time, while DiNozzo teased him about his supposed gaming and sad love life.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A little over a year after Tim joined the team they had a case that involved a little boy, Zach Tanner, who'd witnessed his father being kidnapped. They found the man just in time and while he was in the hospital, the kid stayed with Gibbs or the director. As they waited for Lt. Commander Tanner's arrival the day he was released from Bethesda, Zach was in the bullpen, at the boss's desk. Tim was writing his reports and looked up when he heard the kid call his boss "Gunny".

For a few seconds Tim had trouble catching his breath, feeling the familiar grief bubble up as he remembered his own Gunny. He stared at the kid and his boss, his mind full of contradictory and impossible thoughts. Then the father arrived, took the kid and departed. Boss dismissed them for the weekend, following DiNozzo and Ziva out of the bullpen.

Tim saved his work and left, his mind still whirling. Gunny was dead, Agent Mike wrote them; he died in Kuwait. And Mrs. Shannon and Kelly died days later. The name Gibbs was a coincidence; it wasn't that uncommon. Tim knew of a scientist from the early 1900s, as well as a present-day rapper and a sports star, among others, with the surname Gibbs.

Tim got in his car and sat. Finally, he started the engine and drove off the Yard, finding himself turning in the direction of Virginia instead of heading home to Maryland. While he'd already seen things he couldn't explain with science, he still firmly believed in logic and science. But Gunny…

Sighing, he took surface streets and was overwhelmed when he pulled up in front of a familiar house from long ago, trying his best not to think about the fact that he hadn't consciously thought about his boss's address. This could not be happening! Gunny was dead; they were all dead, over a decade now. And his Gunny was a happy, kind man who smiled, ruffled hair, patted backs and hugged! He didn't even look like his boss; only the color of his eyes, but those had been a different blue, warmer, loving. Except Boss ruffled his hair when he found Ari for him. And he'd smiled at the kid today. Rarely at his team but at the kid. Gunny.

Tim turned the engine off, got out and locked the car, now on automatic pilot, his brain still struggling to understand what his heart was telling him. Words on paper don't have to be the truth. This man, as different as he was from the Gunny who'd taken in four homeless kids, this man was their Gunny.

He stumbled up the front steps, acknowledging another truth: this was the same house he'd lived in years ago. Who else but his Gunny would be living in it now?

The door was unlocked. Tim walked in and looked around, grieving at the silent, sad emptiness. Hope dimmed that the entire letter had been wrong and he'd find Mrs. Shannon and Kelly inside. Betting that Boss - his Gunny - would be in the basement, he opened that door and walked quietly down the stairs. As he got partway down, his emotions and memories overwhelmed him. He sat down heavily, landing on one of the stairs, tears flowing freely.

Gibbs was struggling with his demons that evening, something he nearly always had to do when there was a child involved in a case. This time all had ended as well as it could. The child still had a father; the father still had a child. He took the bottle of bourbon off the shelf and opened it, prepared to pour a splash or two into a coffee mug. He stopped when he heard footsteps crossing the front porch, entering the house, walking directly to the basement door. Someone who knew him then, knew where he'd be. Sighing, he turned his back to the staircase, not yet wanting to deal with whoever it was.

Startled when he heard the thump of a butt landing on a step, he turned around, frowning when he saw his youngest agent. McGee had never been here before and he seemed very upset, the young man was crying. He walked up the steps and sat beside the young man. "McGee…Tim, what's wrong?"

Tim looked up, his expression one of grief and confusion. He blinked as he whispered, "Gunny?"

Gibbs looked closely at the cloudy green eyes and then jerked away in shock. Cloudy green eyes in a hospital bed, two young children, an older boy. His agent's use of the nickname for his rank in the Corps triggered memories flooding into his conscious thoughts. Those same eyes, sad and angry when the young boy hugged him goodbye, sparkling as the boy laughed while they played in Chesapeake Bay. Finally remembering to breathe, he reached over and tilted Tim's head up. "Tim? Are you Tim Crane…our Timmo?"

The young man nodded at the nickname, his words barely coherent, "You were killed, in Kuwait. He told us, Agent Mike did. Our letters to you came back as undeliverable so Mom wrote him and he wrote her back, while we were in Australia. You're dead, killed in an explosion, but here you are, my Gunny, our Gunny."

Gibbs wrapped his arms around him, "Tim…I forgot your eyes, so expressive. All this time…I didn't remember; I'm so sorry. I hate that you thought I was dead." He pulled his former foster son to him, holding him close.

His head burrowed into Gunny's shoulder, Tim moved it a bit so he could be heard. "Does this mean Mrs. Shannon and Kelly are alive too?" He held on as the older man failed to hold back a sob and the two sat for several minutes, mourning their lost loved ones.

Tim finally found words, "I'm so sorry, I wish we'd known. I would have come, all of us would have; we would have found a way. You didn't need to be without us, without family, not all this time."

Gibbs took a deep breath. "Thank you. You're here now." He let out a despairing sound, "You've been here for over a year and neither of us realized."

Tim shook his head, "Not until I heard Zach Tanner calling you Gunny this afternoon. Hit me like an electric charge, the name. I couldn't make sense of it, wondered if I was having a flashback to the day we were told you were dead. I left the office after you did and my car brought me here. I don't…I didn't know your address, but I did before, when we lived here. But I didn't know how to drive then. I just…got here and all I could think was that Gunny was here even though Gunny is – was – dead."

Gibbs tilted his head, rubbing it against the top of Tim's head, comforting them both, "I'm alive, son. I was knocked out by an explosion in Kuwait, was in a coma for several days but I'm alive." He took a deep breath, "When I came out of the coma they told me about Shannon and Kelly; I wanted to die, wished I had. The only way I could go on was to lock away my memories, my life with them and that must have included you kids. And, Tim, I haven't been alone all this time. I know you've heard about my divorces."

Tim grimaced, "Forgot about those."

"Done with that. All my exes are redheads; I was trying to make them be Shannon without any of them knowing about her."

Tim nodded, still wrapped in Gunny's arms. "Kind of makes sense."

"Tell me about you, Geo, Sari and Robbie."

Tim took a breath before saying, "Geo's a Marine 2nd Lieutenant. After he took a BA in history, he was accepted to OCS, graduated and is now in Advanced Training for Special Ops. Sarah is a senior in high school and as full of sass as when we lived here. She's a writer; her first book will hit bookstores in a few months – and she's been accepted to Waverly so you'll see her. Rob, not allowed to call him Robbie anymore, is a junior. He's taking all the science classes he can and yeah, he's on track for his undergrad followed by medical school, going to be a pediatric surgeon."

"Wow! And you, I know your education and obviously what you do for a living but what else are you doing?"

"Tutoring kids at the camp and shelter where we lived. That's part of why I live in Silver Spring so I wouldn't be too far from Bayopolis." He chuckled, "I also have a pretty active social life but please don't let DiNozzo know, I treasure my privacy. And um, I've published some."

"Published? Books, scientific papers, what?"

"Both. I write kids' stories, mysteries and police procedurals under different pen names, Geordie and I co-authored a couple of graphic novels and I've written a few papers. Abby and I are working on one together that may result in a book."

He smiled when a calloused hand ruffled his hair. "So proud of you, all of you. Tell me where you lived."

"Oh boy, well let's see. From here, we joined the rest of the family at Subic Bay; from there we were transferred to Guam and then Greece - Souda Bay - for a few months, that was sweet and…oh yeah, after that we went to Australia. That was great; we were there for over a year, first place we made it through a whole school year. After that, we were in London while Dad was on a special project, then Rota, Hong Kong, Singapore and then Europe again - Naples where my folks are now. Dad's an Admiral and Uncle Jim is a Captain, they serve together."

"When did you leave home?"

"Geordie and I finished high school while we were stationed at Rota; the two of us came back here and lived with Penny after graduation. That was a fun summer with her! Then Geo went to Westwood Community College, he planned to enlist once he got his Associate degree and I moved over to Johns Hopkins. Geo decided to keep going for his Bachelor's and we spent a few vacations wherever the family was while we were in college. I hope to make it to Naples at some point. Our oldest brother lives in London so we could conceivably have half the Crane kids together." He paused, "What about Grandpa Jack?"

Gunny grunted, "Haven't seen or spoken with him in years. We had a falling-out when the girls were killed."

Tim shook his head, tightening his arms around the man again. "Any chance of you two fixing it?"

Gibbs sighed, "I don't know…maybe. We don't get along, we never have."

"Did when we were here."

"That was different, Shannon kept us in line."

"Is he as stubborn as you are?"

"I'm not…yeah, he's even worse."

Tim gave a rusty chuckle, "Bet he says the same about you."

"Tim, there were others, weren't there? Other foster kids, I'm remembering them now too, three boys. My God, I was responsible for them! I need to find out what happened."

"Barry, Freddie and Jose, yes. They're all right; they weren't in the van with Mrs. Shannon and Kelly. I guess somebody decided they didn't have to go to the safe house. CPS found other foster homes for them. Mom wrote the CPS office in San Diego, explaining who we were to them and sending our MCO address. They wrote and we've kept in touch. All three of them returned to Maryland when they were through school. Barry's a police officer on the Silver Spring PD and Freddie and Jose have their own plumbing business in Bayopolis. I just had dinner with the three of them last week."

"Thank God! Do they also believe I'm dead?"

When Tim nodded, Gunny sighed, "I want to see them too; they were nice kids, good kids."

Tim started to say something when his stomach growled and they both chuckled.

"Hmm, sounds like you need to eat. You have to be home tonight?"

Tim shook his head. "No pets, nobody waiting for me."

"Okay then, how about we go to my favorite diner? My treat."

"You don't have…"

"I want to and we need to celebrate finally recognizing each other."

"That's a good reason."

Gunny grabbed his jacket, keys and they left, stopping on the front porch when Gibbs saw the Porsche Boxster parked behind his truck. "Timmo? Is that yours? I know you didn't buy that on your current salary!"

Tim blushed, "Nah, I bought it with the proceeds from my first books."

"Cool! Any chance you'd let me drive it?"

"No, Boss, sorry, not the way you drive!" Gibbs grinned, noticing the change to Boss.

They spent more time talking than eating at the diner but that was fine. Tim smiled to himself, noticing Gunny was a lot more talkative than Boss. He heard about Agent Mike's sudden retirement and his home on a beach in Mexico.

"Have you been to see him?"

"Yeah, I've been there a few times, great fishing, but the house is really a shack. Every I go down there I end up doing a little work on it."

Tim chuckled, "That's a good way to guarantee a welcome back!"

Gunny nodded, "Seems like it. Back to your high school graduation - you and Geo graduated in the same class?"

Waiting to finish chewing, Tim nodded before replying, "Yes, when we got to Subic Bay there wasn't an advanced program at the international school so I ended up in his class after all."

"You graduated from high school at, what - 15?" Tim nodded. "And got your first degree in 3 years?" Tim dipped his head with a smile, nodding again. "Wow kiddo, that's really something! So proud of you!"

They talked for another two hours after finishing their meals, splitting a dessert and drinking several cups of coffee. Gibbs told him what he could of his life after Shannon and Kelly's deaths. It was so late by the time they drove back to Gunny's that he insisted Tim stay over. "I know you have your go bag with you and we're off for the weekend. Unless you have plans in the morning?"

Tim shook his head, "I don't. Have a party to go to tomorrow night, need to do some writing and you know laundry and stuff but nothing else." He made a noise, "Need to tell the sibs about you." He paused before continuing with his thought, "There's a computer program called Skype that we use to keep in touch, it came out a couple of years ago. I have a webcam, Sarah and Rob use our mom's computer and webcam. Don't know if we can get Geordie in on it, but we can try."

"A web what?"

"Web camera, it's a camera that allows us to see each other, like a phone with video. Think of it like MTAC only much smaller and far less expensive. We'd be able to see and talk with Sarah and Rob and I'm sure my parents will want to see you!"

"How much would that cost?"

"Our family already subscribes, so nothing." At the look on Gunny's face, remarkably like one of Boss's looks, Tim chuckled, "Or we can figure out how much the call costs."

"That sounds good. How long does it take to set up?"

"Couple minutes, I just need to set my laptop up. Do you have access to the internet here?"

Gunny shook his head, "I've never seen any need to have it, not for me anyway."

"Ok, then we can do it from Penny's house, that's not too far from your place. Or we can set up at my place, but that's a bit of a drive."

"Is this something I could learn to do on my own? So I could keep in touch with all of you?"

"Yeah sure, my dad and uncle use it."

"On the ship?"

Tim nodded, almost laughing at the determined look on Gunny's face.

"I'll get internet access here if you'll teach me how. Then you can stay over whenever you want and play all the games you claim you don't play."

Tim did laugh at that. "Deal!"

They decided to call from Penny's until Gunny got internet access. He was a little relieved when Tim told him no one was there right now; Penny was in Namibia lecturing and wouldn't be home for another month. Gunny frowned, "Why aren't you staying at the house?"

Tim shrugged, "She's in and out and when she's in, there are frequently people staying with her or visiting. I don't want to give up my place and she has a caretaker for the property."

Gunny looked at him steadily for several seconds before stating, "You don't like her friends."

Tim smiled at the statement, "They're basically aging hippies, pre-New Age. Some are a little too close to anarchy and I'm a new and enthusiastic federal agent; heavy into the whole law and order thing. Let's just say I don't want to chance seeing or inhaling anything I'd have to report."

"Good point. Ok, want to do this in the morning?"

"Yes, I'll send the kids and Geordie an e-mail tonight. It'd be great if we could get Geo on; he hasn't been available for a couple of months. Then maybe Mom would quit threatening to call the SecNav to find out why her boy hasn't called home."

Gunny's eyes widened and his eyebrows climbed his forehead, "You're kidding!"

"I am - she's no amateur! She's been a Navy wife for over 30 years and knows how things work."

"In Advanced Training, you don't have time to think of anything but what you're doing right that minute and will be doing in the next minute. When you do get leave, it's several days because it takes that long to get your mind out of your training and remember there's another world outside the base."

"You did that!"

"A form of it, yeah. Not as intense as what I'm saying though." He smiled as Tim yawned, "Want to sleep in your old room?"

"Not too much trouble?"

"Nah, I rack out here on the couch. The snoring you'll hear is me."

"You don't sleep upstairs in your room?"

Gunny shook his head slightly and Tim again saw the pain in his eyes. "Does anyone around here, any of your friends, remember them?"

"Some of the neighbors, Hank next door, old Mrs. Walsh across the street. Mike, but we don't talk very often. Ducky, Jenny and the others don't know about them."

"You've never told them."

Gunny blinked as he ran his hand through his hair. "I can't stand to talk about them, answer questions. Not to people who didn't know them, didn't know us. I don't want pity; I want Shannon and Kelly."

"Gunny, I'm here and I knew you all. The sibs did too. You're not alone like that anymore."

Strong arms reached out and pulled him in for a hug. "Some days it's so hard, Tim. Especially when there are cases with kids."

Tim nodded into Gunny's shoulder, he'd wondered about that. "Not alone!"

He held onto his former foster father, now also his brokenhearted boss, hoping his affection would help him. And their stories, he and the sibs had plenty of Kelly, Mrs. Shannon and Gunny stories. They still had pictures from their happy months as Gibbses and all the letters, photos and Kelly's drawings sent after they'd joined the Cranes.

Finding an unsecured wi-fi signal in the area, Tim quickly sent the e-mails, receiving an answer from Rob right away. He was up late, it was 0300 in Naples, studying and would tell Sarah and Mom; Dad was on a float. Tim showed Gunny his response and he smiled when he saw Rob's profile picture, a handsome young man. When he claimed he could still see remnants of his 5-year-old foster son, Tim grinned.

As he started to close out his e-mail, he had an IM from Geordie who said he could be on the Skype call and couldn't wait to see everyone. He and Tim chatted back and forth for several minutes, Gunny fascinated by how fast it was and how personal.

They were too keyed up to turn in after that, so Tim showed Gunny all the family photos he had on his laptop. The Crane-Langston-Hubbards had a family project to convert all their film photos to digital so Tim had photos of their growing-up years after leaving the U.S., including all the bases they'd lived on.

When he couldn't stop his yawns, he was chased to bed and he slept better that night than he had since his last visit home to his parents.


	6. Chapter 6

Prayers and positive thoughts go out for everyone affected by the horrible flooding in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and Hurricane Harvey here in the U.S.

* * *

Chapter 6

Up early the next morning, the two had a hearty breakfast before grabbing Tim's laptop and driving to Penny's. Gunny had forgotten about the large property and was once again impressed by the multi-story home with a large front porch nestled in a clearing, surrounded by woods on three sides.

Tim got the coffeemaker going and then went to set up the laptop, telling Gunny to feel free to look around. While he'd been to the house a few times, he'd never had a chance to explore. Now he did, admiring the large fireplace and hand carved wooden mantle. The railing on the staircase banister was the same wood and Gunny approved of the continuity. He poked his head into what turned out to be a closet and thought to head upstairs when Tim called that the coffee and laptop were ready.

Back in the kitchen he found a mug full of deep rich brew waiting for him and he ruffled Tim's hair in thanks, liking the smile that brought to his former foster son's face. They'd talked about how to approach the call and finally decided that Tim would tell the others what happened yesterday and then Gunny would move into camera range.

Gibbs smiled as the siblings appeared and Tim welcomed them. Geordie was first and a surprise for Sarah, Rob and their mother who was dying of curiosity about the call. Gunny waited patiently while they caught up and finally Tim said, "Ok so I asked you all here because I have something I need to tell you and show you."

He told them about the young boy in the bullpen and using the name 'Gunny' for his boss. Sarah made a noise, "Oh Tim that reminded you of our Gunny, huh? I think about them too, we all do."

Tim continued with his story and when he got to the point where he was sitting on the basement stairs crying for their Gunny, Gibbs moved into camera range and took up the story.

"I was working on a project and there was my youngest agent, sitting on my steps crying. I sat down next to him to find out what was wrong and he told me I was supposed to be dead. That you were told I was dead but here I was, Gunny. But was I really _his_ Gunny, _your_ Gunny? The memories came back to me and I told him that yes, I'm his-and-your-Gunny. Been a lot of years, he grew up and I got old. Took us longer to recognize each other."

The others were in various stages of astonishment and emotion. Geordie was grinning through the tears on his face while Sarah and Rob were both crying and Liz Crane had her mouth open in shock and tears in her eyes.

Geordie was the first one to speak, "Gunny! I knew you were too tough for any explosion! Oh man, it's good to see you alive! And you're Tim's boss, wow!"

Gibbs grinned, "So proud of you, all of you! Tim's caught me up on everything you four have been up to – and you and the Admiral and your older kids, Mrs. Crane."

She smiled at him, "I'm so happy to see you alive and to know you're Tim's boss! And last time we spoke we were Liz and Jethro."

He nodded his acceptance of that and Sarah looked at him, "Where have you been? What happened?"

"Got hurt in that explosion and there was some snafu with the medics reporting in. Until last night, I hadn't realized people back here were told I'd died, that must have been through agency channels, not the Corps. Anyway, I was in a coma for several days and that's when," Gunny swallowed, feeling Tim's hand on his shoulder, "that's when Shannon and Kelly were killed."

Rob, who hadn't said anything yet, Gunny remembered he was sometimes shy, looked up with tears running down his face. "I'm so sorry we lost Kelly and Mrs. Shannon, Gunny. When Tim told his story and you were alive, I was hoping…" his voice trailed off.

Tim nodded, "I asked last night, Rob. There are only a couple of neighbors around who knew them, no one else here. Now I'm hoping our Gunny will let us share our memories with him and his with us."

Gibbs nodded, "I'd like that, like it a lot."

"What about Grandpa Jack?"

Gibbs looked down and then at Tim with a crooked smile. "We haven't spoken in years, since the girls died. Tim here is determined to see him so I'll think about it."

Tim looked thoughtful, "I was thinking I'd drive up to Pennsylvania some weekend we're off when there's no snow or rain forecast. Or…"

Gunny sighed, "Or you could ask him down here. Or I could ask him down here."

"Up to you."

Gunny looked at the screen, "Is anyone planning to be over here next year?"

The three in Naples raised their hands and Gunny smiled while Tim said, "Yay! When? Geordie, think you could get leave?"

"Don't know Timmo, let's hear the dates."

Liz laughed, "We're coming home for the Fourth of July. Your father is upset because they can't make port for Thanksgiving so he made a deal for the July holiday. They'll be in Norfolk for 3 weeks so Dad will fly back to Naples with us for a visit!"

Gunny laughed when everyone cheered. When the noise died down Geordie said he'd put in his leave request as soon as he returned to base. When Rob wanted to know where he was, Geo smiled, "There isn't much privacy on base, Rob; I'm at an internet café."

The group talked for another 30 minutes before Geo and Sarah had to go. Sarah said she had a date, which made her two older brothers glower. Geo looked at his brother, "I really do have to get back to base. Tim, this one's yours."

Sarah smirked, glad not to have both on her case. Tim took out his BlackBerry, "Name, phone number and date of birth."

"Tim! You can't do that!"

Gunny looked at his agent who appeared to be quite serious as he said, "Bill Marsh, Ted Cazal, Remy Southward, that guy with the pierced nose, that other guy with the tattoos," Rob called out, "Neil Saunders." She turned to glare at him and then at Tim. His stylus was still poised and her mother gave her a nudge. "Fine, ok, so I've had a few problems."

Gunny was somewhat amused when Rob and Liz laughed while Tim raised one eyebrow, tapping the stylus on the BlackBerry. She sighed, giving him the information which he put in the BlackBerry, sending to his laptop. He looked at his mom, who nodded, they'd stay on and Tim swapped over to his favorite search engine, quickly looking up the guy's information. Gunny was impressed although a little suspicious that some of what Tim was doing might not be legal. The guy's birth date was off by three years, he'd lied to Sarah about his age, which had Tim muttering to himself. He also had some speeding tickets.

When he was satisfied that he had the information needed he swapped back to the Skype call. Sarah was offscreen getting ready; Rob went to get her while Tim told their mother. "He doesn't have anything heinous on his records but he's not a teenager, he's 21. He's also got some unpaid speeding tickets in Naples."

Liz shook her head, "Speeding tickets in Naples, I can't imagine how fast he must have been going, there's not even a hint of a speed limit. And lying about his age, I don't like that at all. First: lying. Second: 21-year-old dating a 17-year-old. Barely a 17-year-old. No. Thanks son, I'll handle it."

"Let me know if you want backup."

She smiled, "I do miss having you and Geordie with us!"

Sarah came stomping in, opened her mouth and took one look at the screen where Gunny and Tim were watching her with raised eyebrows. She turned around with a huff and walked off camera, turning around again to call out "Bye Gunny, love you and your agent, even if he is an overprotective idiot!"

They signed off and sat there looking at each other, finally laughing. Gibbs shook his head, "I almost pity the boys."

Tim made a face, "I thank God every day that someone else is responsible for raising her. That girl can get into trouble standing still by herself in a closed room."

"Real problems or just missing curfew, things like that?"

"Oh no, not Sarah, wouldn't be anything piddly like that. One was a drinker, another slipped her an ecstasy, the tattoo guy talked her into a tattoo…she was 16 then and got caught that time. Rob has a friend in Sarah's class who saw them go into a tattoo place and contacted him. Dad was home and oh boy, that was fun!"

"You were there?"

Tim laughed, "No, Rob filmed their arrival at the house, audio and all! We were afraid we missed whatever was said in the car but Dad told us later he marched into the place, took her arm, told the tattoo guy and Sarah's date that she was underage, that they could both expect to hear from his lawyer, put her in the car and didn't say a word all the way home. And oh yeah, he was still in full uni!"

He kept laughing, "Our sister Carol thinks it's hysterical, says Mom and Dad got off too easy with her, Bill, Geordie and me. And Rob's easygoing; he's focused on good grades so he can get into his #1 college and then his #1 pick for med school. He's not doing anything to jeopardize his goals."

His phone chirped and he made a face. "Sorry to say this, but I have to get going. Uh…"

Gunny smiled, "It's okay Tim; you're young, go have some fun. I'll see you Monday."

Tim nodded, looking a little shy. "Do you want to tell the others?"

"I'll let you choose."

Tim shook his head, "Then not yet. It's private, nobody else's business, like you said before." He rolled his lower lip into his mouth, a move Gibbs suddenly remembered a much younger Tim doing. As he recalled, he wanted to say something but wasn't sure of the reception. Gunny opened his mouth to tell him it was okay when Tim went ahead. "DiNozzo gives me a hard enough time as it is, not giving him reason for more."

Gunny snorted, "Not that he has a clue about your life anyway. Is it too much?"

Tim shook his head, "I'm a Navy brat, remember? I'm not crazy about the superglue, that hurts and I could do without his pranks, but he doesn't pull many of those on me anymore. I tune out most of his babble. He seems like a nervous or insecure guy. Maybe both?"

"Didn't have the easiest childhood."

Tim looked at his former foster father, rolling his eyes. "Guess that makes it unanimous as far as the team. Can't imagine Ziva's was any picnic."

Gunny agreed. They drove back to his place and Tim started gathering his belongings. When he was ready to leave, Gibbs walked out with him, putting his hand on the back of Tim's neck for an affectionate squeeze. "Don't be a stranger, ok? I know you have your own life but when you have a few free hours, come on over."

"I will, Gunny, promise. And you could come see my place."

"I'd like that, Timmo! Now scoot!"

Tim drove down the street, smiling. Gibbs walked back into the house deciding he'd tell DiNozzo no more pranks or superglue. He'd tell him there were complaints around the office that the Director told him to stop. That was all true, he just hadn't had a chance to talk with his SFA yet, not with the back-to-back cases they'd had.

Still chuckling about Sarah and the tattoo guy, he headed to the basement to work on his new project. His original plan had been to start another boat but now he remembered that years ago when the kids were here, Tim and Geordie worked with him making toys for the shelter and camp kids. He knew they'd finished some but he didn't think all of them were completed. After the kids left, he hadn't had the heart to continue and put the rest in a box somewhere down here. He started looking, eventually finding a box marked "Geo & Tim" on a shelf. Hauling it up to his workbench, he emptied it out carefully, thinking there might be some small, delicate pieces. There was an airplane that just needed to be painted and another one that was partially assembled. A sailboat with a tattered sail, a locomotive for a train, a car with movable rubber wheels, a fire truck, they'd done more than he remembered.

Carefully putting them back in the box, he set it off to one side of his workbench. What he wanted to do was make something for Tim, a piece of furniture. Of course, he had no idea what the kid…man, he was one of his agents after all, already had or what he'd like and in what style. He dug through his magazines and pattern books and put aside all the ones with household furniture to look through once he knew. Wondering if tomorrow was too soon for a visit, he went up to the main level of the house and then up one more floor, to the seldom-visited master bedroom. He thought for a minute and then went back out into the hall, pulled down the attic stairs and scrambled up. It didn't take him long to find the box marked, "Geo, Tim, Sarah, Robbie" in Shannon's scrawl.

He smiled, blinking away tears when he saw that, Lord he missed her. She'd be over the top happy knowing Tim found him, that they were working together. Idly he wondered if Kelly would have gotten up to as much mischief as Sarah apparently did, finally deciding she would not have. He remembered Sarah's sass, no matter what she was taught and realized Kelly had been funny, smart, imaginative, curious about everything - and easy to get along with, not much sass coming out of her.

Taking the box into the master bedroom, he put it on the bed. Going through it, he didn't notice the time but did notice how tired he was. He guessed it was all the emotion of yesterday and today. He leaned back against the headboard to close his eyes for a few minutes. He woke curled up under the blankets on the bed, very late for him…0800; he couldn't remember the last time he'd slept so long.

As late as it was for him, he figured it was still too early to call Tim, he'd gone to that party last night; he might not be home yet. He'd hold off until 1000, maybe 0930. In the meantime, he needed coffee and his stomach was growling. After breakfast, he got laundry started and cleaned up around the house. Finally, he decided it was late enough and dialed Tim.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Tim was just out of the shower and enjoying his first cup of coffee, tired but pleased about the previous evening. He'd gone home with the most interesting woman he'd ever met and they'd ended up talking all night. Well, ok there was more than talking but they didn't have actual sex. By the time they'd gotten to her place, each had realized there could be far more between them than mere lust. He thought that was part of growing up; at least that's what his dad told him.

When his phone rang, he smiled at the caller ID. "Hey Gunny… call out?"

"Nah, no work. I called to see if you have some time today, want to have brunch? I'd like to see your place."

"Yeah, that'd be great! How about you meet me here and then we can go to my favorite place in Silver Spring? Uh…you mind another diner?" Gibbs chuckled and they finalized their plans.

When he walked into Tim's apartment, he was surprised by all the bookshelves. Not by the books but the substantial number of record albums; he thought he was the only one who hadn't replaced them first with tapes and now with those disc things. He smiled as he looked at them; his Tim certainly had eclectic taste. He especially loved seeing the jazz albums, remembering that Tim first learned about jazz from Shannon. She'd been amused with his young enthusiasm but readily shared her own love and knowledge of the genre with him.

Over brunch at the diner, almost as good as Gibbs' favorite, he told his kid he'd like to make him a cabinet for his albums with a top that would fold out to provide a dining table for two or a desktop for one. Tim's eyes almost glowed, he loved the idea and they spent a couple of hours at the apartment looking at designs in the books and magazines Gunny brought with him. He chuckled to himself when Tim picked an old-fashioned design; for a geek with the latest electronic toys, he sure had an appreciation for antiques! The cabinet would be high enough for the fold out table-desk would be a comfortable height for Tim. And it would have castors that would make it easier to move around, or they could be locked into place.

They talked about Monday, discovering each was afraid things would be awkward or at least a little strange. With that in mind, they decided using "Boss" and "McGee" would keep both their heads in work mode. And that's how they did it. Boss never asked McGee any personal questions he wouldn't ask DiNozzo or David; McGee kept any Gunny-tinged comments to himself. He did notice a few weeks later that he hadn't been subjected to any more superglue incidents or pranks. Life was good.

On weekends when they were off or on call, Tim would frequently show up at the house to help Gunny with his cabinet. He'd been moved when he saw the box of unfinished toys with his and Geordie's names on it. He'd taken a photo and sent it to his brother, followed by one with the toys spread out of the workbench. He eventually got a reply from Geo thanking them, saying it brought back good memories.

They were always busy at work. Tim learned to sleep at his desk and to keep a supply of protein bars and snacks in his desk in a box marked "hard drive, circuit boards" knowing nosy DiNozzo would leave it alone. He started using the gym and losing some of his college beer and dorm food weight. His suits, already too big for him, looked even worse as he slimmed down and one day he gave up and wore jeans, a dress shirt and a casual jacket. Ziva told him he looked great and that he needed to get rid of the suits. That was enough for him!

The young woman he'd met at the party had been transferred across country and although they talked about it, both felt their relationship was too new to pursue keeping it afloat.

The weeks flew by as the team was hit with back-to-back cases. After a chase through a car wash, Tim was reduced to wearing his gym clothes in the office, the only clean and dry clothes with him. The next day he brought in a few extra items of clothing to leave at the office. He thought of adding a floor mat, pillow and blanket but there wasn't any place to stash them without being conspicuous. Besides, DiNozzo would likely find them and declare rights to them or something.

The Senior Field Agent certainly liked to flaunt his authority; his behavior made Tim think of a newly promoted lieutenant his dad once mentioned. The guy was so caught up in his rank he forgot why he was promoted and had to be reprimanded. Oddly enough, Tim was starting to like DiNozzo.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Spring finally blossomed and they all hoped the snow was done for several months. A strange case came along with blood all over a room at the Navy Lodge and as it turned out, the gory scene was staged. Then they discovered Mikel Mawher, a weird and unlikable former boyfriend of Abby's. That's when things got really hinky and Tim somehow ended up being Abby's protection detail, at his apartment. Things didn't go very well although Abby was unhurt. Gibbs was furious with him, punishing him the next day by taking his chair away so that he had to kneel on the floor. Aside from not being given a chance to give his report, kneeling on the floor for hours hurt his back, more specifically the scar tissue from the stabbing years ago, not that he'd ever tell anyone.

Boss was too angry to listen so Tim kept quiet, planning to visit him later to tell him what happened and give him his report to read. He redeemed himself and got his chair back but from his boss's attitude, he knew he was still upset with him. He could understand what it looked like but he hadn't had a chance to tell the boss what happened yet, hadn't been asked or allowed to have his say. And his co-workers weren't any help.

After a calm and quiet end to the week, Agent McGee ventured over to his boss's house on Saturday. Afraid DiNozzo or Abby might show up after the tumultuous week, he locked the front door behind him.

Boss was in the basement, working on something new, something bigger than the unfinished cabinet and Tim hoped the man hadn't given up on him.

When Gibbs looked up, his eyes narrowed and he glared. Tim held his hands up.

"I haven't had my say yet. I know you're still pissed at me but I need you to know the whole story." Without waiting for any acknowledgment, he started talking, got all the way through, put a copy of his report on the workbench, turned around and walked up the stairs. He didn't know what he'd do if the man didn't believe him but that made him even angrier.

Yes, he should never have left the apartment to go to his car; he should have sucked it up and listened to Abby whine about the toothbrush all night. But she'd promised to follow his order not to answer the door and fool that he was, he'd believed her. Not that that excused him. But then Abby promptly ignored his order and her promise, opened the door and put her life in jeopardy. He'd wondered why Boss gave him the assignment in the first place; he must know Abby didn't follow anyone's orders except Gibbs' and sometimes Ducky's. And from what he understood, you didn't give protection detail to new juniors by themselves, not when there's a death threat out there, not without backup and not for someone with whom you had history. Protection details had to be focused solely on the security of the person being protected, that history could easily distract that focus.

Gibbs stood still in the basement, listening to his front door opening and closing again as Tim left. He half hoped he'd just gone to his car but then he heard the powerful engine start up. Tim was pissed that he'd not been given a chance to give his report – and rightly so.

Gibbs had listened to Abby and automatically assumed the agent was in the wrong. He was to some degree but then Gibbs realized what he'd done. McGee and Abby had history, he never should have made that assignment, plus it was Tim's first time as lead in a protection detail, he should have had backup. The fault was ultimately his, not Tim's, and Gibbs thought Abby was also at fault. She'd been around the agency longer, she knew better, worse yet she'd lied to Gibbs about Tim's actions, making herself the hero. Gibbs knew Tim, knew his sense of integrity and honor, knew he didn't lie. Yes, to DiNozzo about his personal life but Gibbs saw that as self-defense.

With a sigh, Gibbs gave himself a head slap and then cleaned up before driving to Abby's apartment. It took him longer than expected to get the truth out of her, the real story that matched what Tim had just told him. He told her how disappointed he was that she deliberately disobeyed the direct orders of her protection detail, lied to him and then allowed him to punish McGee, humiliate him in front of the whole office. He told her she'd have to work to regain his trust and that from now on, he'd question everything she said to him and he could not trust her to work with McGee again. He also demanded that she rewrite her report, this time truthfully. She screamed and cried but he recognized what his mother called 'crocodile tears' when he saw them. After calling her on her insincerity, he left.

Gibbs thought long and hard about how he could make this right for McGee. Ultimately, he called Ducky who came over, heard what happened and told Jethro what he already knew he needed to do.

Monday morning when the team was in and the rest of the squad room populated, Ducky arrived in the bullpen with Abby and physically held her in place while Gibbs publicly apologized to his junior agent for the punishment he'd given him the previous week. He hadn't deserved it and he wanted everyone to know that. Then he glared at Abby who in a whisper started to whine about apologizing but Ducky tightened his hold on her arms and she spoke in her normal voice, apologizing to McGee for disobeying his order, breaking her promise to him, lying about what happened, letting him take the blame and lying to Gibbs and the Director. She asked him to forgive her but he said nothing to her, turning and thanking Gibbs, accepting his apology. Abby started raising her voice then, working up to a tantrum while Ducky somehow got her back to the elevator.

By that time, Director Shepard was watching from the catwalk, hoping this would be a lesson for Gibbs, Abby and McGee. She wasn't sure about McGee as a field agent but she was pleased he had enough chutzpah to make Gibbs listen to him. It had taken her years to do so and she knew the same was true for DiNozzo and Stan Burley before him. She watched Abby and mentally made a note to keep an eye on her. Her work was brilliant but she'd lay odds this wasn't the first time that Abby lied.

Although Tim went right back to work as if nothing had happened, he was still angry and hurt by Boss-Gunny's failure to listen to his report in the first place and found other things to do the next few weekends. And wondered if this was such a good idea, being on the same team. Maybe Morrow and Shepard were right in doubting his abilities as a field agent. That made Tim angry enough to redouble his efforts to improve. He signed up for a paintball class, figuring it would help improve his shooting skills. He also signed up for a class offered by a county sheriff's department, luckily that was held on a Saturday.

It took Gunny that long to figure it out, swallow what was left of his pride, give himself another headslap and go to Tim. There he made a more personal apology, which Tim accepted. Gunny asked Tim to have lunch with him one Saturday but Tim had another commitment. He came over the following weekend and found Gunny working on his cabinet. Working on it together helped them get through the lingering awkwardness.

Although they were still crazy busy with cases, Tim noticed his teammates' attitudes toward him had greatly improved as though he'd somehow proved himself. By what he wasn't sure…this was not his first time standing up to Gibbs but it was the first time either DiNozzo, David or anyone else in the squad room that morning, including the director, had ever heard Gibbs apologize to anyone. They were impressed.

And then came one of Tim's darkest moments. Another protection detail, this time with the entire team, Tim in the street by himself. He spotted something and someone that shouldn't be there, gave a warning and ultimately shot a cop. Another horrific experience; he was devastated. He knew he'd have all kinds of good and bad experiences as a field agent for NCIS, he'd never considered one of those being shooting one of the good guys.

They all got through it, somehow. Tim later thought maybe the shock of DiNozzo showing up at his place and trying to help blurred some of the other things that happened. Like being interrogated at Metro without legal representation or anyone from NCIS backing him up. Gibbs subsequently apologized to him for that. Tim wanted to shout at him that apologies were fine but why the hell hadn't he been there? Or one of the others? Metro – and Tim – took that as a sign that the agency believed him guilty and left him to twist in the wind. And then as the cherry on top of the wonderful time it'd been so far, Gibbs dragged him along to confront the real killer and then chewed him out for freezing. Tim's whole body was shaking, had been since the shooting, he felt he would have been just as likely to shoot Gibbs as the dirty cop.

On the way back to NCIS, Tim opened the car door at a red light and threw up. Gibbs started to understand then or at least questioned his attitude and actions. Tim had never shot anyone before, certainly not a cop and they'd likely never know if he'd fired the kill shot. He wasn't someone who just got over things, nor would Gibbs want him to be. When he'd taken him along to confront Archer, he hadn't considered any of that.

At Ducky's insistence, Tim went home with him that night, still terribly shaken. When the young man had nightmares, Ducky sat beside him and furious, called Gibbs and held the phone so the Team Lead could hear what was going on.

All that earned Tim yet another apology from Gibbs but this time Tim pushed back at him, wanting to know why Boss didn't think of these things beforehand. Tim was so angry he said he didn't know if he wanted to be on his team. And then he left the house, he needed to cool down, find a way to handle this – and decide if he wanted to continue with the team or even in law enforcement.

Over the next few weeks he did a lot of soul-searching, spoke with his dad, eventually realizing he owed it to himself to stay. He had so much to learn; he just hoped 'other people' recognized they too had a lot to learn.

Gibbs was taken aback by Tim's anger. He knew how hard the young man worked to get on his team and he knew Tim still had a lot left to learn. His experiences so far hadn't been the best and a lot of that was Gibbs' fault. He knew Tim the person too well and assumed too much. Broke his own rules. Tim was spot-on when he asked why his boss wasn't seeing or thinking of these things ahead of time, things that would eliminate the need for apologies. When he looked at the last few months, since Tim moved up to junior agent, he wondered. Were they too close? Should they be working on the same team? He loved the kid as his own. Yes, he also treated DiNozzo and Abby like his kids, but Tim had been his and in some ways always would be.

He thought about the rest of his team. DiNozzo had been a cop, a homicide detective, and only needed retraining to federal and specific NCIS protocols. Kate didn't know beans about investigating but she knew protection details, even though she seriously screwed up at least two of them, and had training as a profiler although her success with that was also questionable. In the scant two years she had on the team, she'd learned to be an able investigator. Gibbs still remembered her tracking down the woman who'd stolen money from the Navy, managing to frame a shipmate while distracting all the sailors who might have noticed. Kate had tracked her down, proved her lottery win was far less than the woman claimed and then lured her back to the Navy Yard where they eventually had enough to arrest her. Ziva was an assassin; she knew weapons, how to use them, stealth and interrogations, always watched her perimeter but like Kate didn't know how to investigate. That's what she started with when she landed in the bullpen, along with learning to deal with people without terrifying them.

Tim knew only what he'd learned at FLETC and Gibbs hadn't even thought about it. Yes, he'd aced FLETC, his shooting and investigative skills had vastly improved over time. And he certainly knew about the seedier sides of life, having been forced to experience them firsthand as a child. But Gibbs assumed too much with him, he'd thrown him to the wolves unprepared and without backup at least twice now and the wolves nearly got him both times.

It was possible in the end fieldwork would prove not to be for Tim but Gibbs didn't believe that. He hadn't yet tapped the potential he'd seen in Norfolk on that first case he worked with them. He needed to spend time with him as an agent, train him in the things he hadn't had to train the others and then they'd reassess his field agent status. Other than being angry at her doubt, he'd ignored Jenny's comments about McGee's field acumen. Now he wondered if she'd been subtly telling him he needed to step up with the kid.

He spent several hours compiling a list of skills and experiences Tim needed to have, consulting with Ducky who admitted to relief that he was finally doing something about the situation. Then he worked it into a plan. If Tim was willing, they could work on some of it on weekends they were off although only for a few hours. They all needed their downtime.

Finally, he was ready to start and asked Tim for dinner one Friday night. He was worried that it might be too late, things were strained between them personally and while McGee was unfailingly polite and attentive, always professional and a hard worker, he'd withdrawn from his boss and the others and his self-confidence had taken a real nosedive. When he saw the relief in Tim's eyes at the invitation, he realized his agent had been waiting for him to make the next move.

His plan was met with enthusiasm; Tim stayed over and they got working on his training that Saturday. The most noticeable and immediate improvements were the repairs to their personal relationship and bolstering Tim's self- confidence. They worked hard and eventually Gibbs pulled Ziva in to help; he wanted Tim to be able to defend himself and she was the one to teach him that. Tim soon agreed that including Tony was a good idea and he was pulled in, although not before a chat with Boss about mentoring and working to increase teammates' self-confidence rather than attacking it. Gibbs realized later that the chat should have happened when Tim first joined the team. Apparently, the Team Leader had a lot to learn too.

Tim gained confidence, knowledge and experience and with each of his teammates working with him, the team started to pull into a more cohesive unit, what Abby would dub "Gibbs' Three Musketeers". When Jenny remarked on the change, Gibbs knew they were doing it right, Agent McGee finally had her approval and support as a field agent. He hoped Tim knew; although he was always professional around her, there was no doubt in Gibbs' mind that his youngest agent knew of her doubts about him. It wasn't something he'd normally do but finally he told Tim of the director's notice of the change and of her support of him during the Abby situation. Tim didn't say much but from the expression on his face, Gunny knew he'd taken it in.

And then after their months of hard work and good results, it all came apart. Gibbs was working aboard a Turkish ship to roust out a terrorist when he entered a room with a man he believed to be a fellow agent working undercover. The room blew up. Tony, Tim and Ziva, in a vehicle on the pier nearby, witnessed the explosion and fire.

Gibbs survived but lingered in a coma for several days. Working the case, the team scrambled to find the culprit and figure out what happened. While the director spent hours and days at the Portsmouth Naval Trauma Center, Gibbs' team had no time to do so.

Tim was a wreck; he couldn't believe his Gunny had been blown up again. When they were told Gibbs had regained consciousness but had memory loss, he became even more determined to see him. One evening when he had multiple searches running, searches that would take hours to finish, he sneaked out, telling only Ziva where he was going and drove to the hospital, channeling Gunny's maniac driving. At the nurses' station, he gave his name, expecting to have to wheedle his way in to see Gibbs. But the nurse looked at Gibbs' records and smiled, "Ah, his foster son, good." She gave him the room number and he went in quietly, not sure who else might be here. He didn't care by this point; he needed to see his Gunny.

He was surprised to see an old guy who looked like Agent Mike sitting by the bed, talking with Gibbs. When the retired agent turned around, he stared at Tim. "I know you, kid?"

Gunny saw him and held out the arm that didn't have needles and tubes. "Timmo, son, come here." Tim went to him, getting as close as he could. Gunny whispered to him, "They're gone, Tim, Mrs. Shannon and Kelly. Dead in a car crash after their driver was killed by a sniper." The injured man hung onto Tim, "So glad you're here with me, son. We need each other to get through this." Tim was confused but played along, "I'm here, Gunny."

When Gunny fell asleep, Tim looked sideways at Agent Mike who shrugged, "He thinks this was the explosion in Kuwait; he's lost the years in between. Looks like you and me are the only links." The man roused himself, "It's good to see you again, Tim; you grew up well. Jethro told me about the two of you finally recognizing each other and you're the newbie junior agent he's so proud of."

Tim smiled at him. "Thanks Agent Mike…sorry, I don't remember your last name."

"Franks but go ahead and call me Mike. Haven't been an agent in a long time."

"Gunny says you retired to a beach in Mexico."

"That's right, haven't been back up here since I left the agency. It's changed and not for the better."

Not knowing how to reply to that, Tim kept quiet, although he suspected it might have something to do with Mike not being allowed to smoke inside the hospital. When the doctor came in, he was happy to meet Gibbs' foster son and Tim asked him not to mention it to anyone else. He left a few minutes later, needing to get back to the searches and get some sleep; Tony had ordered them to get at least four hours. With a three-hour drive each way and the results of the searches to be analyzed, four hours was just about what he got. It was worth it for having seen his foster father.

A few days later Ziva went to see Gibbs and he came back with her, looking like hell but remembering what he'd been told before the bomb blew. Unfortunately, the Deputy Director of NSO wouldn't listen to him and the terrorists' bombs went off. In disgust, Gibbs walked out of MTAC, returning to the bullpen to tell Tony "You'll do", effectively passing the team to him. He told Tim that he was a good agent and not to let Tony tell him otherwise. He spoke with Ziva, put a finger on Abby's lips when she tried to talk and then he left with Ducky.

Somehow, they kept going. Tony was the Team Lead and Tim was now the SFA, something he found almost laughable considering he'd probably been the greenest junior agent ever, now he was the greenest Senior Field Agent ever. Still, he did the best he could and Tony helped him. They pulled together although Tim wished Ziva wouldn't be as critical of Tony as she was. Realizing that was something he could influence, he pulled her aside for a chat and the atmosphere in the bullpen improved after that. He was a little proud of himself for taking Ziva to task, doing his new job. Especially considering his growing friendship with her.

At the end of June, his parents and the two youngest siblings flew in from Italy, Bill from London, Carol from South Africa and Geordie from wherever he'd been. They stayed at Penny's, even Tim, and had a good time despite their shock and disappointment about Gibbs' disappearance.

Tim took a few days leave while they were there, relieved that Tony didn't ask what he had planned. They had a wonderful Fourth of July, watching fireworks from the Potomac. When they packed up to return to Italy, London, Johannesburg and wherever Geordie was off to, they felt refreshed, having thoroughly enjoyed their family time. Tim went to Naples with his parents and younger siblings; he was taking more leave to experience some of their life in Italy.

He threw himself into exploring every inch of the towns and cities around Naples. Sarah and Rob went with him to the island of Capri where they toured the Blue Grotto and had fun imagining themselves as rich jetsetters. He went with his mom to a cameo-making factory outside Naples and bought a couple of the brooches. After, they drove to Sorrento, a lovely, friendly small town just down the coast.

He, Rob and Dad took the train to Pompeii, enjoying seeing the famous and infamous sites. There he bought gifts including a DVD for Tony and a book for Ducky. He and Sarah took a night train ride to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. They reached Pisa about 0100 and checked into their hotel, touring the Tower and the town later that day. They knew the bell tower was no longer in danger of falling, it had finally been stabilized but it was still interesting to see. From there they hopped a train to Florence spending a few hours there before taking the train back to Naples. Tim remarked to Sarah that he absolutely had to return to Florence and for several days, a month would be better.

She laughed at him, "Planning on retiring already? Didn't know your books were doing _that_ well!"

He chuckled, admitting to a tourist's dilemma: experiencing the beauty, hearing the history and wanting to live there, seeing only the surface and forgetting the wonders of his own home.

His last trip was to Venice, again a train ride. After Dad left for Norfolk early one morning, Tim, Rob, Sarah and their mom began the 5-hour train trip. They stopped in the hilltop Republic of San Marino to look around before carefully hiking back down the just-washed, slippery cobblestone pavement, retrieved their bags from storage at a local hotel and resumed their trip to Venice. Arriving in late afternoon, they checked into their hotel and then walked around the alleyways and many bridges, admiring the architecture and the history.

Tim shamelessly bought souvenirs while the ladies ooh'd and ahh'd at the various wares, beautiful Venetian glass, intricate lace made on a nearby island and other lovely items. When Sarah bought herself a purple watch with pretty bits of Venetian glass around the watch face, he found an equally bold colored one for Ziva. He hoped he'd been reading her signals correctly and that he'd have the chance to give her the souvenir privately. It wasn't expensive jewelry, just something fun to show her he'd been thinking of her.

Since none of them was fond of pigeons, they wore hats to St. Mark's Square and were amazed at the detail on the cathedral, the unique blend of Gothic and Byzantine architecture. Wanting to know more, they took a tour of the structure and Sarah bought a book with most of the details they'd learned, already planning to feature the cathedral in a story.

After that they wandered until they were hungry, eating at a restaurant on the banks of a canal, watching the gondolas glide through the water. After seeing a few of them, they decided they had to take a ride. Tim took dozens of photos, loving the buildings, the bridges, other gondolas, the tourists pointing and waving to them, loving the whole experience while the gondolier sang to them. His mother was amused that Tim was so enthralled when they'd lived in so many different places. She was glad her children weren't jaded.

After a quiet night in their hotel, they slipped out for an early breakfast, once again canal-side, and then spent the morning exploring further. The ladies took a boat tour to the island of Burano, famous for its lace and brightly painted fishermen's houses. Tim and Rob hung out in Venice, poking around every corner and for once enjoying getting lost, easy to do in the narrow alleys and lovely bridges of Venice. By mid-afternoon, the four were back together and gathering their luggage from the hotel, took a water taxi back to the train station to catch the train home to Naples.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

He had two more days with his family and then Tim flew home to DC and work. With his days off over the July 4th holiday, he'd been away from the team for two full weeks. And they had no idea what he'd been doing.

Tim realized that because he'd bought presents for the group and now he'd have to say something about where he'd been. He got home on a Friday night and checked in with Tony, glad to hear they weren't working that weekend. His initial plan had been to sleep out his jet lag and report in on Monday; instead, he asked Tony, Ziva, Ducky, Jimmy and Abby to meet him for brunch on Sunday.

He was happy to see them; as crazy as their lives were, he'd missed them. He had little gifts for everyone and showed photos, including photos of his family. It was time. They were astonished to find he was the son of an Admiral, had sisters and brothers and had lived in various parts of the world.

He blushed, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to start my career at NCIS as 'the son of'. My dad's a great guy, not your typical bureaucratic naval officer. He loves the sea and he's taught me a lot. And he's lived through none of his kids joining the Navy. Although I suppose Rob could be a Navy doctor. And my brother Geordie is a Marine."

Tony looked at the photos, "The two oldest resemble your parents but none of the rest of you do. Except for those two, none of you look alike at all!"

Tim nodded, "That's because Carol and Bill, the two oldest, are the only biological children of our parents. Sarah and I are siblings but Geordie and Rob are not related by blood to any of us."

"Wow, that's amazing! I bet there are a lot of stories there." That came from Jimmy and Tim smiled at his friend, "Yes but I'm not comfortable talking about our lives before adoption. We went through difficult times before we found Mom and Dad."

Abby ignored him, asking a question about their past. Tony reached out a hand to her, "Abby, he just said he doesn't want to talk about it, leave it. He's shared plenty and that's more than the rest of us have. Drop it."

She glared at Tim, he stared right back and she crumbled, leaning back and playing with her water glass, sulking. Ducky smoothed things over and the rest of them worked to get past the incident.

Back at work, Tim threw himself into cold cases and helped the others catch up on their paperwork. He was almost relieved when they had a call out midweek but the MEs ruled it a suicide. Although they investigated the death, there wasn't anyone else involved.

He'd mailed postcards from various spots in Italy to Franks' address in Mexico and was happy and relieved to get a note from Gunny. He was doing all right, still healing and working to regain his memories. He quipped that at least he remembered that Italy was a country in Europe.

A few weeks later, Ziva got into some trouble and sent a plea for help to Gibbs. He came back to help her and when he left again it was even harder than the first time.

When he came back a second time, Tim didn't know if he wanted to see him. He was afraid he'd leave again and it was too painful. From what he could tell, the others felt the same way. It was especially hard on Tony, but the minute they broke the case, Gibbs left.

Tim felt like he had when he and the sibs left the Gibbses, as if his heart was broken. Gunny's health had obviously improved; he knew them all by name and functioned just fine as an investigator. If he left because he was disgusted with the politics that led to the destruction of the _Cape Fear_ , then why had he come back and left again – twice?

The third time he showed up, he was called by Agent Fornell when a guy he and Gibbs had busted years ago escaped from prison. The team ignored Gibbs as much as they could, working the case on their own, pretending he was not in charge. This had to stop!

They figured out who the real bad guy was and were at his place to arrest him when he broke free, reaching a vehicle before they did. Tim and Tony took off after him and nearly caught up with him when he disappeared. The two agents had no idea where he'd gone, right or left and continued driving straight. And then looked in horror as the guy's sedan headed straight at them. When Tony turned the wheel to miss him, the other driver anticipated his move, turning in the same direction and stepping on the gas, rammed them head on.

Although he sustained injuries, Tony was spared serious damage by the deployment of the driver's airbag and another last second turn of the steering wheel. Tim wasn't as lucky. He was pinned in and unconscious. Mickey Stokes, the bad guy, was dead. Ziva soon had other agents at the crash site and the EMTs arrived only to call in the Fire Department to use the 'jaws of life' to extricate Tim.

Despite Tony's protests, he was transported to the hospital before the Fire Department had Tim out. Gibbs thought this was the second worst day of his life, watching his kid being cut out of a car. When the medic who was treating and monitoring Tim from inside the car reported that his blood pressure was dropping, Gunny was angry at his inability to help him, he prayed for Tim's life and for the strength to help him.

When Tim was finally in the ambulance, Gunny tried to crawl in with him but the medic stopped him. "You can ride up front but I need to have complete access to him."

He felt a little better when he could answer questions about Tim. His blood type was O negative and he was generally very healthy. He'd had asthma since childhood and took a daily medication along with his rescue inhaler. He'd been thrown out of a car at age 9, had head trauma and broken bones, stabbed at age 11 but made a complete recovery. At that point, Tim began to regain consciousness, trying to move around. He quieted when he heard Gunny's voice telling him to stay calm, that he was on the way to the hospital, that he'd be all right and that Tony was already at the hospital but not critically hurt. Tim whispered "Gunny" as he shut his eyes in pain.

When examined at the hospital, the doctors found his spleen ruptured and that he'd lost too much blood to go straight into surgery; he needed a transfusion. That could be a problem with O-negative blood as it was rare, only found in 7% of the population. Gibbs and Tim regularly donated and usually had a supply of their own blood stored at Bethesda. Unfortunately, there'd been a critical need a few weeks before and both Tim & Gibbs' stored blood had been used on other O-negative patients.

When Tim transferred in from Norfolk, Ducky made sure that other local members of NCIS with O-negative blood were mentioned in Tim's records and he in theirs. Now a staff member left the exam room to contact potential donors while others worked to stabilize the injured man.

When Gibbs' cell buzzed, he expected it to be a call from Jenny wanting an update on her agents. Instead, it was the hospital asking him to donate blood for a patient. When Gibbs explained that he was already in the ER waiting room at the hospital, the staffer hurried through the double doors looking for him. Gibbs stood, quietly telling Ziva that Tim needed blood. He followed the staffer to a phlebotomist, who took blood from his finger for preliminary testing. While that was going on, Gibbs filled out forms and then a nurse spoke with him, taking his vitals and verifying he was eligible to donate.

Laying down on a bed, his arm was prepped and the needle inserted. As he watched his blood fill the bag that would ultimately be given to Tim, he was infinitely thankful he'd returned to DC for this case. When the phlebotomist had enough, he skillfully withdrew the needle and instructed Gibbs to wait for the nurse who would be in shortly.

The nurse entered almost immediately, bandaged Gibbs' arm and told him to remain lazing about for another few minutes. When his eyes involuntarily filled with tears, she stopped to listen to him say that he needed to know how his agent was, that the young man was very special, like a son to him. Promising to get a status if he would stay put, she first completed his post blood-draw care before disappearing, leaving an aide with him. She was gone less than five minutes but to Gunny it felt like five hours.

She nodded at him when she re-entered the room. "He's a strong young man. As critically injured as he is, he's holding his own and once your blood is tested they'll transfuse him, get him stabilized before taking him into surgery to repair the damage. There's a Dr. Mallard in there, do you know him?"

She saw by his relief that he did and after smoothing back his hair, brought him more liquid and food. "I need you to listen to me. No caffeine for at least 6 hours; your body needs to recover from its own blood loss and caffeine is not a good thing to do to it."

Gibbs looked at her, "Is that 6 hours from the time the needle was withdrawn?"

She tutted at him but nodded and he looked at his watch. He'd been post donation for 15 minutes now, so 5 hours and 45 minutes to get through without coffee. In a hospital waiting room while his kid was in surgery. He sighed, he was a Marine and a parent; he could do this. The nurse released him a few minutes later and escorted him back to the waiting room. He sank into a plastic chair with another sigh, forcing himself not to look at his watch. Ziva looked at him, "You gave blood for Tim?"

He nodded, "We're both O-negative, a rare type."

There was silence as she wondered if a response was needed. She worried that if she said anything to him she'd slip up, revealing her feelings about Tim and their growing relationship.

Realizing there was other information to share, she leaned forward, "Ducky says that Tony will eventually be fine. He has a broken arm, a hairline fracture of the fibula and 2 cracked ribs but his lungs were not harmed and there are no other internal injuries or concussion. He is in pain and will need time to heal. He is sleeping right now; we may be able to see him later. They will likely keep him for 2 days, perhaps 3." She watched as Gibbs' face lightened with that information.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Behind the double doors in the lab, the phlebotomist looked again at his work. There was nothing wrong, just unusual. Coming to a decision, he signed off on the donor blood, made a copy of his findings and took everything to the exam room where the patient was waiting. He handled the transfusion and while the patient was prepped for surgery, he spoke with his supervisor. Telling her of his find, she took his papers from him, carefully examining them. "Ah, I see what you mean."

"Should we do something?"

She thought about it, "Let's do this. When the patient is out of surgery, we'll talk with his doctor and let him decide. It's not against protocol to discuss blood matters with the treating physician. If he agrees, there's a test we can run that will prove or disprove this."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Enough time elapsed while Tim was in surgery that Gunny was enjoying his first coffee post blood-draw when Ducky returned to them, accompanied by a woman he introduced her as Dr. Aldersol, Tim's surgeon.

They were told that Timothy had done well in surgery; he was now in the recovery room where he'd remain for a couple of hours. He'd suffered broken ribs, hairline fractures to his left humerus, scapula and a broken ankle. Internally, his spleen had partially ruptured but they'd been able to repair it. His badly bruised left lung would heal with time and care.

Tim would eventually recover completely from his injuries and Gunny suddenly had a flashback to Dr. Feeney saying the same thing, "With a lot of TLC."

He didn't say it aloud but resolved to give his kid all the tender loving care he could handle. Tony too, he wondered if the two of them could stand being under the same roof for their recoveries. Dr. Aldersol was still talking, "We'll keep him here for several days to make sure there's no infection or postsurgical bleeding, that he's getting enough oxygen and of course that we have the right pain management for him. Speaking of blood, Agent Gibbs, I understand you're the donor, thank you!"

While he'd been waiting during Tim's surgery, Gibbs had been mentally reviewing his behavior over the last few months. He was not happy with the way he'd treated his team, walking out on them as he had. It was not their fault that politicians were bottom-feeding buzzards.

Even worse was the way he handed over the team to DiNozzo only to reappear not once but three times to take it back and then twice leave again. No more of that, he'd find a way to make it up to Tony, to all of them. When the doctor thanked him - thanked him for what he'd do for anyone who needed it but especially one of his team, he wanted to tell the doc not to thank him, that he didn't deserve it. Instead, he just nodded.

He called Jenny to give her an update, reaching her executive assistant Cynthia Sumner who sighed in relief. "I'm so glad they'll both be all right and I know everyone else will be too. I'll let Director Shepard know. Any idea how long you'll be at the hospital?"

Gibbs wanted to say as long as his boys were patients but knew that wouldn't fly. Instead he said, "Until McGee is out of recovery and taken to his room, two or three hours; we still need his statement."

Cynthia wasn't fooled by the 'need for statement' but she also didn't call Gibbs on it.

The call complete, Gibbs checked in on DiNozzo who was still asleep. He straightened his blanket and gently patted his cheek, hoping he'd wake soon so they could talk. He left him a note saying Tim was out of surgery and doing well and that he, Ziva and Ducky were going to get some food, adding two 'winky' faces. With no injuries to his internal organs or head trauma, Tony was not on any diet restrictions; they'd bring him back 'real' food and a drink, although nothing carbonated. Gibbs couldn't imagine that burping would feel good with cracked ribs.

He found the others waiting for him in the hallway. By the time, they reached the parking lot they'd decided where to go: Tim's favorite diner, only a few minutes from Bethesda.

As they sat waiting for their meals, Gibbs took a deep breath, "Ziver, Ducky, I owe you and the others an apology for my actions over the last few months."

Ducky's eyes grew wide while Ziva was a little frightened until she remembered Gibbs' public apology to Tim months ago. "I'll speak to Tony and Tim when they're well enough to listen but I just want to get this straight with everyone. I'm sorry I walked out on you the way I did. I'm not sorry I came back to help you, Ziver, but I didn't handle it well with DiNozzo and then I just left again. And you, Ducky, feel like I've been steamrolling over you, in and out, the past few months.

"And…I know Jenny told you, the team, about Shannon and Kelly. I appreciate you not asking questions. I lost them a lifetime ago and then again in the explosion. That's primarily why I left; I couldn't handle the memories, the grief a second time around. It's too hard to talk about them with people who didn't know them." He sighed as he finished.

"Jethro, is there anyone around who did know them? I can't even imagine…it must be hell."

Gibbs tilted his head, "There are a few people but not many and I don't see most of them anymore."

Ziva touched his arm, "I understand; I cannot bring myself to talk about Tali or my mother."

Ducky nodded, "I find it difficult to talk about Mother and she's still with us." He looked at his friend, "You were still recovering from your injuries, Jethro, and angry with the criminally shortsighted Deputy Director of NSO. His failure to comprehend the dangers cost a lot of lives, my friend _._ "

"Appreciate it Duck, but that doesn't excuse the revolving door."

Ducky nodded, he certainly agreed with that, "For my part, your apology is accepted. You'll stay this time?"

Gibbs nodded. "Yes, and thanks."

Impulsively, Ziva leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "I am happy to hear that, Gibbs. I too accept your apology."

He brightened, thanking her. They enjoyed their meals, ordering one of Tony's favorites for him and soon headed back to the hospital.

Tony was awake and once he'd been reassured that Tim really was going to be all right, that it would just take time, he smiled as he ate his meal. Gibbs stuck around for a bit to see if his former SFA was in any shape for a serious and he hoped friendly conversation. Then Jimmy arrived with a DVD player and one of Tony's favorite movies and with a pat to his uninjured arm, Gibbs left to find Tim.

He was in ICU, just starting to wake up as Ziva finished a brief visit. Gibbs told her to stay but she saw a look in his eyes that told her he wanted some time alone with Tim. She'd noticed the subtle changes in their relationship and wondered what brought it about. She would not pry though; she saw the changes made Tim happy and she welcomed that. She smiled as she left the room; she was enjoying getting to know Timothy McGee on a more personal basis.

Gibbs sat down in the chair next to Tim's bed, wondering about the look on Ziva's face. Shrugging, he turned his attention to his kid and smiled when green eyes opened.

He leaned forward, "Hey, Timmo." Tim moved the fingers on his right hand and Gunny reached for them. "Easy, son. You just had surgery."

Tim frowned, "Car?"

"Bad guy rammed you and Tony."

"Stokess. You sai' Ton' ok?"

"He will be. Right now, he's watching a movie with Palmer and he had his favorite club sandwich."

"Hea? Lung?"

"No damage. Your turn, one of your lungs is bruised."

"Hurts."

"Yeah, let's call the nurse."

"Gun'y…don' go."

"Won't son, promise. I won't leave again."

"Glad."

Gibbs leaned over, whispering in his ear, before pushing the call button for the nurse.


	9. Chapter 9

More prayers and thoughts for everyone in Mexico affected by the horrible earthquake as well as ongoing for those in the path of Irma (formerly a hurricane, now a tropical storm), with Jose on its way. Paraphrasing what a friend said on Facebook, this month has certainly not been good for the Americas.

* * *

Chapter 9

While the medical staff saw to Tim's comfort, Ducky was in Dr. Aldersol's office with other medical personnel, hearing something that was, metaphorically speaking, blowing his socks off. When the others left, the doctor looked at him, "From the look on your face, this is quite a shock."

Ducky, still speechless, could only nod. Aldersol continued, "How would you feel about us, you and me, telling them?"

Ducky blinked a few times, thinking furiously. They'd need complete privacy and Timothy was scheduled to be moved into Anthony's room tomorrow. But DiNozzo would probably be released the day after that. Then he sighed, most of the Crane family would be here day after tomorrow. There was a contingent who lived in Virginia who would mostly likely visit tonight, so whatever they were going to do they needed to move quickly. He also realized that Abby and Madam Director were bound to eventually show up.

He looked at Aldersol who was nodding along and realized he'd said all of that aloud. Shrugging, he added, "If Timothy is coherent enough to understand, we should do this as soon as possible."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Gunny was speaking softly to Tim, telling him about life on the beach in Mexico, when Ducky and Dr. Aldersol came in. They pulled the curtain closed over the window to the corridor and stood looking at the two men, patient and Boss. Finally, Ducky moved closer to Tim, "Timothy, how are you feeling?"

Tim gave him a half smile, "Tired. Pain meds kick in…soon."

"Good! Although if you can hold on for a few minutes, Dr. Aldersol and I have something to tell the two of you."

Dr. Aldersol took over from there, much to Ducky's relief. "Agent Gibbs, when you donated blood for Tim, they tested it for all kinds of things, including testing it with Tim's blood to ensure compatibility. When the staff saw the results on the test, they came to me. The results indicate you two could be closely related. It's possible you are father and son, uncle and nephew or brothers."

Tim's jaw dropped open and his eyes now looked wide awake while Gibbs blinked repeatedly before finally saying, "You mean I might be Tim's father, his biological father?"

"It's possible, yes. We can do a DNA test that will prove it conclusively. That will take a few weeks."

Tim and Gunny looked at each other before Gibbs leaned over and kissed his son who smiled, kissing him back. Then they both looked at Ducky who frowned, "What? It's not part of a case."

Trying to think through the relentless fog of the pain meds, Tim tilted his head at Gibbs who nodded, saying, "It could be, Duck. Back in 1989, NIS, Franks' team, investigated the murders of Commander Dan McGee and his son Patrick McGee in 1986. There were two surviving children, Sarah and Timothy." He gestured to Tim, "He's Timothy McGee, adopted by the Cranes. And Sarah…" He looked at Tim again, "Does he know about the sibs?" Tim nodded and Gibbs continued, "Sarah McGee was also adopted by the Cranes. Obviously, there was information missing from that file or we missed something."

As he said that his forehead furrowed, there was something in that file, some little piece that Mike had decided didn't need to be addressed.

"Duck, can you get hold of that file for me?"

"Yes, but why not you?"

"I haven't had my chat with the director yet, need to be fully reinstated first. Don't want to delay; my kid has waited long enough."

Ducky leaned on the end of the bed, noticing Dr. Aldersol had slipped out. "Your kid? I expected more surprise from both of you!"

Tim grinned, managing to whisper "The second secret."

Gibbs snorted, "There are more than two of them, Timmo!" He looked at his old friend, continuing Tim's story. "Tim and Sarah were abandoned by their so-called stepmother after she murdered the others. They ended up in Bayopolis, staying in a homeless shelter there. Three years later Tim was stabbed, cut very badly and rushed to Bayopolis General. The manager of the shelter got Geordie in from the homeless camp where he stayed, and he took the two little ones, Sarah and Rob, to the hospital.

"Geordie's birth father was a Marine who'd died a few years before. Geo was scared to death; scared Tim would die, didn't know what to do with the kids, how he'd take care of them. Then he remembered his father telling him about NIS and called us to report that a Navy dependent had been stabbed. Shannon and I were certified foster parents so when Geordie and the littles needed a safe place, they came home with us and so did Tim when he left the hospital. We were their foster parents for 8 months. If the Cranes and Hubbards hadn't been found, we would have adopted the four of them."

Gibbs was sitting close to Tim now and the younger man was half leaning on him.

Ducky sat there with his mouth open, "That's extraordinary! So, when you met in Norfolk…?"

Gibbs shook his head. "No, it wasn't until the Tanner case last year, the little boy who witnessed his father's kidnapping." Ducky frowned before nodding that he remembered the case.

Tim moved his head so he could speak, "He call'd boss Gunny. Tha' was wh' we call'd him as kids, Gunny and Mrs. Shannon."

"Then you knew."

Tim shook his head and figuring he was almost out of energy, Gibbs told Ducky the rest of the story, following with, "It changed everything for us, Duck. Tim and the sibs had been mourning us all these years and I was sunk in despair, work was all I had. Tim has his own place but we spend a lot of our free time together as Timmo and Gunny. And now I really am his old man!"

Tim smiled and Ducky realized the young man should be laying down; he was never going to heal properly the way he was positioned now. Which led him to another topic. "We couldn't decide which topic to raise first but I thought we'd have the wonderful surprise and then the dreary discussion. And you've just answered part of it, Jethro. Timothy, there are two sealed documents in your medical records. Is one of them the stabbing?"

Tim nodded and told Ducky which document it was. When both older men gave him the fish eye, he sighed and nodded. "No' now, please?"

Ducky bowed his head, "My apologies, Timothy, you're sorely injured and here I am throwing more stress on you."

Gibbs took the subtle warning to heart and nodded; he wouldn't prod until his son was ready. His _son_ , his flesh and blood son. He turned to Tim, "I'll call Grandpa Jack today."

Tim smiled tiredly, "Be nice if he c'ld meet th' rest of th' fam…i…ly."

Ducky frowned, "Wasn't that supposed to be a surprise? Oh, you meant the rest of the team! Oh dear, I've certainly put my foot in it, haven't I? I might as well continue, who is Grandpa Jack?"

Jethro took a breath, "My father. When Tim and the others were living with us, he visited several times."

Ducky shook his head; this had truly been a day of revelations. "Good heavens, I had no idea you had living family, Jethro. Where does he live?"

"We haven't spoken since the girls died although Tim's been working on me and I was close to caving before the explosion. He lives in Stillwater, Pennsylvania, where I was born and raised."

Tim gave him a look and Gunny smiled, "Yes, son, I will, as soon as you fall asleep."

He laughed when Tim immediately closed his eyes. Ducky stayed in the room with Tim while Gibbs went to the lobby to contact his father, calling the phone at the market his father owned and operated.

Admitting he was a little nervous, he punched in the numbers he remembered. He'd wondered if he'd even recognize his father's voice but had the answer to that as soon as the call was answered. "Stillwater Market".

"Dad? It's Leroy."

There was silence although Jethro could hear background noise.

"Leroy?" The shock in his father's voice made his son feel bad and he vowed he and Tim would never have this kind of chasm between them. Then he smirked to himself as he realized there was no longer any background noise, apparently hearing his name shut everyone up!

"Yeah, Dad."

"You all right?"

"I am; how are you?"

"I'm good, son."

"Dad, I have a couple of things to tell you – good things. You remember the kids who lived with Shannon and me for a few months?"

"Of course! Tim, Geordie, Sarah and Rob. I remember how devastated we all were when they left."

"Yeah. Tim's back in my life, Dad, he's one of the agents on my team."

"That's wonderful, son! What team and what kind of agents?"

Jethro explained his position at NCIS and a little bit about Tim finally recognizing him.

"That's terrific!"

Gunny took a deep breath, "Tim was in a car wreck earlier today and he's in the hospital. He's going to be all right but he'd really like to see you and, well, I would too."

Jackson's voice was thick when he answered, "You sure, son?"

"Absolutely. I'll pay for your ticket and you can stay at the house with me."

"Thanks for the offer of the ticket, but I've got plenty, Leroy. You said Tim was hurt today, can he have visitors?"

"Yeah, he's had surgery already and he's sleeping a lot but he can have visitors. Matter of fact, you'll get to see some of his relatives. His adoptive parents and Sarah and Rob will be here in two days."

"And that's not too many people?"

"Nah. Besides, I'd like you to meet the rest of my team and some of my friends."

"Fantastic! Let me see what flight I can get and I'll call you back, need your number."

Jethro gave it to him and they disconnected. His hands were so sweaty with nerves that he almost dropped his phone. Then he nearly jumped when someone patted him on the back - Ducky.

"Sorry I was eavesdropping, got a little worried. From your end, it sounded like it went well."

He nodded with a sigh, "Guess we'll still have to talk about 'things' but feels ok for now."

Ducky cleared his throat, "Yes well, Jimmy's leaving in a few minutes."

Gibbs huffed, "Need to see Tony."

"Thought you might."

Patting his friend again, Ducky returned to Tim's room while Jethro stood staring after him, his relationship with Tim in the forefront of his mind. Timothy Gibbs, wow! Not that Tim would necessarily change his name again and Gibbs was his legal middle name, but he wouldn't mention it. He realized he still hadn't figured out how, well he knew how but with whom he'd created Tim.

He knew his boy was born in November of 1977 but when he counted back 9 months there wasn't anyone he remembered being intimate with then. Shannon's mother had decreed she couldn't see him and he'd left for Advanced Training in Southern California in January of '77.

There was Tori, they'd had a good time together; he'd met her at a dance that February and got her phone number. But the dance was at the end of his leave, he couldn't have had a date with her until his next leave in March. They hadn't had sex until, hell, he didn't know, either toward the end of his March leave or during his leave in April. He did know he'd called her over that summer just as his dad taught him, checking to make sure everything was all right. She'd sent him a letter with her new phone number, saying she was married. She'd talked about her new husband, a Navy officer but never said anything about being pregnant.

He sure hoped that whatever it was he remembered in the McGee case file would help them. Shaking his head to clear it, he peeked into Tim's room; finding him sound asleep, he headed downstairs to Tony's room. Too many things going on!

He hadn't figured out just how he was going to approach this but as he sat down, he solved the problem by blurting it out, not something he did often. "DiNozzo, owe you an apology, a big one."

Tony's eyes widened in shock. "Boss, Rule 6, are you all right?"

Gibbs huffed. "Need to say this and Rule 6 needs to be redefined, Tony. Back in May, I had to leave and you were the right person to lead the team, I've never had any doubts about that. But I keep showing up, bumping you back and that's wrong. You've been patient and I appreciate that but it's wrong, Tony. It's your team now; team can't have two leads!"

"Boss, if you want the team…"

"Not gonna do that, not again!" He saw the look on DiNozzo's face. "I'm not leaving again but I'm not taking the team either. Gonna figure out some other way to work at the agency."

"Boss, I don't want you to do that and I'm sure McGee and Ziva won't either."

Gibbs patted his arm, "Thanks but I gave up the team when I walked away, it's not mine to take back and Jen shouldn't have allowed it to happen. I am sorry, Anthony."

Tony nodded, "Apology accepted. But what're you going to do?"

Gibbs gave him a little grin and Tony relaxed. "Have some ideas, just need to work 'em out before I meet with the director."

They talked for several more minutes until Ducky came in to let them know he was headed to the Navy Yard and would see them in a few hours. When Tony's stomach growled, Gibbs looked at his watch; after the tumultuous morning, the rest of the day had passed quickly.

"How about I get us some chow?"

"Um, Boss, you haven't said how Tim is."

"He's on a lot of pain meds right now but he'll be all right, Tony, it'll take time but he'll get there. Reminds me, wanted to talk with you about that. I'd like you both to stay with me while you're recovering."

"Stay with you, at your house?"

Gibbs nodded and Tony frowned, "Heard a rumor you sold it."

"Nope. Had it listed for sale for a couple of months but didn't renew the contract with the real estate agency."

"Ah, well sure, Boss but it's really not necessary you know. There's an elevator at my place and I'll be fine on my own."

Gibbs smiled, "Offer still stands, kiddo, just let me know."

He headed out to get food for the two of them and was just re-entering the building when he spotted Ducky. "Back again so soon?"

"I have the file for you. Madam Director was still on the Hill so I didn't have to sneak."

Gibbs dropped Tony's takeout in his room, finding him asleep. He left a note saying to call his cell and he'd warm the food up for him; then he and Ducky headed downstairs to the cafeteria. While his friend went in search of soup, Gibbs got a table and started paging through the file. As he'd remembered, the mystery was in the agent's case notes and it was a word, one word. However, he couldn't read it and he didn't have his damned glasses with him. Grunting in frustration, he started eating his lunch. Ducky returned and gave him a questioning look when he saw the file pushed to the side.

"Found the thing, can't read it."

Ducky smiled, "Shall I give it a try then?"

He almost laughed at the face Gibbs made, but turned to the page he indicated and looked up at him, speaking quietly. "It says 'adopted'."

Gibbs nodded, "That's right, now I remember Franks saying it wasn't any of our business. But I think it is. Duck, Tim was born in November '77, right?"

"Yes Jethro, although he was 9 weeks premature. He wasn't due until January."

Gibbs sat there looking at him and then shook his head, "January, nope, right time frame, wrong girl. I know his mother's name was Lily and I've never dated a Lily. You sure about the blood thing?"

"Yes, very sure. I wonder…" Ducky turned to a page attached to the inside of the folder. "It's an old file, Jethro; the background information is still in it." He handed the folder to Gibbs who held it at arm's length to read it.

"Mother: Lily Victoria Hubbard McGee, deceased 1979. Sad but still doesn't help; she's still Lily and as I said I've never dated a Lily."

"Jethro, you were 18 or 19, weren't you? And a Marine! You must have dated someone – or were there too many to remember?"

"No, Duck, it wasn't like that. I was recovering from a broken heart because Shannon's parents wouldn't allow her to see me. The only girl I dated was named Tori, although Hubbard might have been her last name; I thought it was Howard but Hubbard sounds familiar too and not just from Tim's relatives."

"Jethro, Tori is a nickname for Victoria and what do you mean about Tim's relatives?"

His friend went pale as his eyes widened. He opened and closed his mouth before finally grinning. "Yep, he's my son, I'm his dad!" Then he frowned, "His maternal grandmother and his uncle, their surname is Hubbard. Of course, that makes sense. But why didn't Tori tell me about our baby and why did she use a different name with me? She wrote me after I left, sent me her phone number. I called her as soon as I got the letter - that was in August, she could have told me then. She gave him to McGee without giving me any choice! Didn't I have a right to know?"

"I would agree with that, Jethro, although I'm afraid we'll never know why."

His friend sat lost in thought and Ducky left him alone, finishing his soup and wondering idly about the Hubbards although he realized it was a common enough name. When Gibbs' cell rang, he answered, saying, "I'll be right there." He looked at Ducky, "DiNozzo's awake; gonna get his lunch and reheat it. Be back in a few."

Ducky nodded, "I believe I'll stop in to see Timothy. And if you're done with the file, I'll take it back."

Gibbs nodded his assent; after disposing of their trash, the two friends headed upstairs to see the injured agents.

Ducky found Tim awake, trying to work the remote to the TV with his non-dominant right hand. Ducky smiled at him, "Amazing how dependent we are on our dominant hands, isn't it? And never give it any thought until they're no longer available."

Tim chuckled. "Got that right. Tony still okay?"

"Yes," he leaned in closer, "your father has just gone to get DiNozzo's lunch heated as he was asleep when Jethro returned with it."

Tim beamed at him. "So glad you were here with us for the news. It's good to have someone besides the two of us know the truth!"

Ducky chuckled, "I would have been surprised enough to learn you two met during your childhood, much less that you were Jethro's foster son."

"Gunny and Mrs. Shannon."

"Of course. What was she like?"

"Fun, warm, nurturing and strict. Although to go from 1 child to 5 overnight and 3 of them the same age, strict was probably an absolute necessity. She and Gunny gave us as much love and TLC as we could handle."

Ducky opened his mouth to comment but noticed Tim was blinking back tears. "I'm sorry to bring up sad memories, Timothy."

"They're not all sad, Ducky, but they are final. Can't be any more memories with her and Kelly. So glad Gunny, my father, survived."

"I hadn't thought of his injuries last spring, how that must have affected you."

"I was so scared I was going to lose him again. I called in the troops; the sibs were just as scared as I was. Our parents, the Grands and Uncle Jim supported us, me by phone mostly." Tim looked at his blanket, telling Ducky of his desperate drive to the hospital to see his Gunny. "He remembered me, although he thought I was still 12 years old. And Agent Mike, I mean Mike Franks, was there and I knew him so I felt a little better after, until Gunny showed up at the Navy Yard to quit."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Tony's Philly Cheese steak was reheated and returned to him. When Gibbs saw that he was engrossed in a movie, he left the food and hurried to the Intensive Care Unit to see his son. He smiled to himself; he'd referred to Tim as his son since the Tanner case; now it was more than being his former foster father.

He smiled again as he walked in, seeing Ducky sitting with his Tim. "Hey sleepyhead, how ya feeling?" Leaning over, he kissed Tim's forehead and then chuckled when his son blushed. "Tired and sore, Gunny. Kind of like I got hit by a car."

"It'll take time to heal, Timmo, I can tell you that. Just make sure you do what they tell you and don't be stubborn about it like your old man."

Tim rolled his eyes at him and Ducky chuckled, "It is good to see the easy-going relationship you two have outside of work. I never would have guessed!"

Both men huffed, Tim wincing at the pain he'd just caused himself while Jethro said, "It hasn't been easy. We've had our share of battles."

Ducky had another comment but stopped when Jethro's phone rang, the return call from Jack. He chuckled to himself when Tim's face lit up at the man's name; he was looking forward to meeting the senior Gibbs and all the McGee, Crane and Hubbard relatives. Gunny held the phone to his ear so he could say hello to Grandpa Jack.

Father and son smiled as the call ended, the Gunny saying, "He'll be here tomorrow, his flight gets in at noon, I'll pick him up."

Tim grinned at him and Ducky soon took his leave, realizing the two needed some time alone. He was waiting for the elevator when it dinged and the doors opened. He glanced up reflexively and then his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

One of the women exiting the elevator glanced at him, nodded and continued on her way. When she realized that her companion wasn't with her she turned back to see her standing and staring at the gentleman still standing there.

"Maisie?"

"Donnie?"

Ducky nodded and put out a hand that trembled a bit as he was nearly overcome with emotion at the sight of his old friend.

The woman, who was indeed Maisie, took his hand. "Donnie, this is astounding, it's been so long and a whole ocean away! I'm here to see my grandson."

"I shouldn't keep you then, I've just come from seeing a dear friend."

"No, don't go. Would you mind waiting while I see my boy? He was in a car crash this morning and had to have surgery. As he's in the ICU I know we won't be allowed to see him for long."

"Maisie, my dear, what's his name?"

"Tim, Timothy McGee, well he's really Timothy Crane but he uses McGee at work."

Ducky smiled, "And that is also my friend."

Tim had just introduced Aunt Claire to Gunny when his Gram walked into the room, arm in arm with Ducky. He frowned at his friend, what the heck?

Jethro smiled at Maisie Hubbard, wondering what she was doing with Ducky. He hadn't seen her since the kids left but she looked much the same.

"Hello Maisie, it's great to see you again!"

"And you, Jethro, I've been so thankful you and Tim found each other again – and that you survived everything."

She kissed him on the cheek and bent down to kiss her precious grandson. "Hello darling, how are you feeling?"

"I'm all right, Grammie. How do you know Ducky?"

"I haven't heard that nickname in decades! He and I were close many years ago, Timothy, in London."

Tim nodded and relaxed a little. She'd married his grandfather in London so he guessed she and Ducky hadn't been _that_ close.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

After visiting for a while, a nurse shooed them out, reminding them that her patient had been in an accident, had surgery and landed in the ICU, all in the same day – today. Gunny stayed while the others left although not before Ducky and Maisie made plans to 'catch up'. Once she and Claire left, Ducky came back in the room.

"Sorry, I didn't want to say this in front of the ladies. Through a friend, I've arranged to have your DNA tests done. The lab is A-rated and they have access to the same databases we do at NCIS. I thought you might not be ready to share the information with everyone yet, or at least have the choice of when to do that."

Gibbs frowned, "Whoever runs it would only have two sets of numbers, no names."

"Yes; however, sometimes the temptation to look those up might be overwhelming."

Tim had already given Ducky a grateful look while his father looked at him, troubled.

"She would do that? And talk about it?"

Ducky shrugged, "Do you want to test her discretion?"

"No, I don't. Better to do it your way but if she finds out she'll be very upset."

Ducky stared at his old friend, moving his look to Tim and back again with a questioning look. Gibbs looked at him, "Duck, no, I am not choosing her over Tim, not ever again! I'm concerned that she'll find out. Will she be able to tell someone has accessed our database?"

Tim cleared his throat, "They won't use the NCIS database. There's a larger database that our information is shared to - it's for all federal agencies and no, she can't trace who's looked up what."

Gibbs nodded, "Yeah, that's good with me then…how about you, Tim?"

He nodded and Ducky smiled at them both, "Wonderful, I shall set the wheels in motion in the morning then." Tim gave him a look but the man smiled serenely, bade them a goodnight and left.

Tim looked at Gunny, "Whoever he's got doing it, it's probably already done. He'll show up with the printouts tomorrow or the day after."

Gibbs snorted, "Wouldn't put it past him! How do you want to handle telling the family?"

Tim had had time to think about this, "You need to tell Gram and Uncle Jim first. I wish there was a private room here where we could all get together and then we can tell everyone. I know I'm not going to be released while Dad and Uncle Jim are still here. Umm, reminds me. Is it okay if I still call you Gunny? I know it's not 'Dad' but you're my Gunny. I've loved you all these years, dead and alive, by that name."

"Yes, it's very okay. I've always understood that Gunny was my dad name with you kids." They talked for another hour or so, with Boss-Gunny apologizing to his former agent for walking out on him and the team. He felt like pond scum when he saw that his son had tears in his eyes. He gently wrapped an arm around Tim's uninjured shoulder, kissing the top of his head. Damn, he needed lessons in being a decent human being.

He said that aloud and Tim gave a watery chuckle. "I thought of quitting and going to stay with you. But I need the income to pay for my car and all those albums. Knew Mom and Dad wouldn't be happy, figured you wouldn't be either."

"I would have been pathetically happy to see you but not happy you quit your job."

Tim accepted his apology and they moved on by making plans to tell Director Shepard and the team. Tim looked at him, "Are you taking the team back? Oh, I'll have to transfer."

"No to both; tell you what I'm thinking…" He outlined his idea and Tim rolled it around in his head, it would work, they'd make it work if Shepard would let them give it a shot.

"So, Tony would have a team and I'd be his SFA still. And you'd have another team that would float between teams as needed. And Ziva would be attached to our team but work with you too?"

Gibbs nodded and looked at Tim. "Or, with Ziva's consent, she could be attached to my team and float to Tony's team."

Tim smiled, "Yeah, hope that would work better in the long run. Two teams, two agents each. We're going to need another agent on Tony's team if we're still the MCRT, can't do it for long with just two of us."

"All right, two teams with two permanent agents each and two to four floaters?"

"Fully trained floaters. No probies, we're not going to have time to train them. And I can't believe we're doing this without Tony! You need to bring him in on it and don't mention to him or anyone that we talked about it, please!" Tim sighed, "We need to tell the team, including Jimmy and Abby as soon as I'm out of here."

"All right, done and done. Now, you need to sleep, kiddo."

"Yeah, I'm tired and the pain's getting worse, hoping Nursey comes in with more pain meds…oh good." The nurse walked in just as he said that.

"Agent Gibbs, are you staying tonight?"

"I'd like to but this chair…"

"No problem, we have a cot, pillow and blankets we can bring in for you. You just need to leave enough room around Tim's bed so we can get to him."

While the ICU staff saw to Tim, Gibbs slipped downstairs to say goodnight to Tony. He found him sound asleep with the TV still on, so he gently dug the remote out from under the patient, turned it off and put it on the bedside table. Then he did something he hadn't done since he'd lost his daughter, left a little sketch on a napkin of him with an eyebrow raised telling DiNozzo to do what the docs told him to do. He drew a little smile underneath the words and put it under the remote.

Back upstairs, he found the cot was really a rollaway bed and looked comfortable. Tim was fading out as the meds dripped into him but managed a smile when his father kissed him goodnight, ruffling his hair.

Jethro woke once during the night, when Tim moaned in pain. Before he could stumble out of bed to find the call button, a nurse was in the room to hang a new bag of 'the good stuff' as he told Gibbs with a wink.

The next morning, Gibbs woke, moving out of the way while the AM shift saw to Tim. He headed to the cafeteria for coffee and some food. Noticing they had espresso, he asked for the largest cup and found it was nearly as strong as he liked. He had a hot breakfast, liberally applying ketchup to nearly everything and remembered to check his cell phone. There were two messages, one from Jenny who wanted to know if he'd left already and one from Tobias asking about DiNozzo and McGee, saying he would stop by the hospital that day. He hoped Jenny was being facetious but then with his recent track record she had a right to be snarky.

Checking the time, he saw it was just 0630, too early for either she or Cynthia to be in the office. He called, leaving a message that he was at the hospital and that Tim would be moved into a regular room with Tony – and that Tony would be released tomorrow. He didn't tell her he wasn't leaving because he wasn't quite ready to have that conversation with her.

Within a couple of hours, Dr. Aldersol had seen Tim and authorized his move to the medical-surgery ward, to join DiNozzo. When the nurses explained how long it would take to move their patient and get him settled in, Gibbs decided to go home for a shower and change of clothes. He also needed to change the sheets in Tim's room for his dad. He shook his head; he couldn't believe he'd just called Jack like that! He hadn't thought about it in years but Tim wanted his Grandpa, couldn't blame him!

Gibbs showered, dressed in fresh clothes, changed the sheets and stopped at the diner for two breakfasts and four coffees to go before heading back to the hospital. They'd have lunch out somewhere and get takeout tonight when they left the hospital. He stopped, in something approaching panic when he realized he'd be in the house alone with his father for several hours. He gulped; maybe he'd ask Tobias over as a buffer.

Back at the hospital, he balanced food and more importantly coffee on his way in from the parking lot. Someone held the entrance door open for him and on the elevator, someone else asked and then punched in his floor while he nodded his thanks. At some point, he realized he should have also picked up clothes for DiNozzo to wear home tomorrow. Maybe he'd ask Jimmy to do that, he could get Tony's 'go bag' out of his car. He huffed to himself, as many times as DiNozzo had been in the hospital you'd think they would have this down to a science!

He found both boys asleep. Putting the food and coffee down, he hurried to the nurses' station where he was told the move had exhausted Tim; there was no change in his condition, he was still on track. Tony wasn't a morning person at the best of times and had probably fallen back to sleep as soon as Tim was settled.

Gibbs ate his second and much tastier breakfast, waving the box under DiNozzo's nose a couple of times before he decided to let him sleep. Enjoying his coffee, he shook out the newspaper he'd brought from home and nearly read all the way through before he heard a sniff from his son and looked over to see green eyes eyeing the coffee.

Gibbs smiled as he shook his head, "Oh no, not after surgery! Not until the Doc says you can."

Now those green eyes had their sad puppy look and Gibbs laughed, "Want a sniff?" He gently passed the cup under Tim's nose a couple of times and smiled at the satisfied look.

Tony finally woke up and eagerly ate and drank his reheated breakfast and coffee. Suddenly realizing that Jack was bound to say something about the months of foster care, Gunny gave Tim a wide-eyed look that he didn't understand.

Gibbs told Tony that his father would be arriving soon, causing some confusion. Tony frowned, "I didn't even know you had a father. I mean of course, at some point, but alive?"

"Yes, I do and that leads me to something else you haven't known."

By now, Tim was curious but still hadn't figured out what the deal was. When Gunny started explaining that Tim and his siblings had been the Gibbses foster children for several months and when and how they'd finally realized it late last year, he got it. Oh boy, that could have been a nasty surprise.

Tim added, knowing how important trust was to DiNozzo, "We haven't told anyone else, Tony. Well, the family because they already knew, just didn't know I was working for Gunny. We were told years ago that he was killed in the explosion in Kuwait. And there are other memories attached, some not so happy."

Gibbs nodded, "Ducky found out last night but when I came in here, you were already asleep." He mentally crossed his fingers, hoping that if he hadn't been so tired he would have told Tony.

Tony looked at Tim, "You thought Gibbs was dead? Wow, that must have been a huge deal when you figured it out. And I remember you said that you had hard times before your parents found you."

Tim nodded, "It was a big deal, we both cried and when we told the sibs and my mom, they cried too. And yeah, before the Gibbses, Cranes, McGees and Hubbards, tough times. Still don't want to talk about any of that."

"Ok, thanks for letting me know, I won't ask."

"Thanks. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to talk about it, just not now."

While Tony was feeling more alert and awake, Tim was sore and in pain and found that pain meds and sleep were his only solace. He didn't stir when the TV went on, the volume kept low, or when Gunny pulled the curtain between the two beds while Jimmy was visiting. It was a little early, but since Palmer was there Gibbs decided to leave for the airport to meet his father. He kissed Tim on the forehead and sketched out a note to him. It was again a sketch of him, this time smiling and saying, "I'll be back with G. Jack; mush!"

'Mush' had been Kelly's word when she felt anyone (i.e. her parents) was being too 'lovey dovey'; to Tim it would mean 'love you' but remain vague to anyone else who might see the note. Tucking the note in Tim's right hand, he waved goodbye to Tony and Jimmy and then left.

He ran into Claire and Maisie in the lobby, kissing them both on the cheek. "Good morning! Tim had a pretty good night, only woke once and he's been moved to the room number I gave you last night. He's been asleep for a couple of hours so he might wake up but he's sore today. Tony has a visitor, another of our NCIS clan, Jimmy Palmer, Ducky's assistant, a good kid. I'm just heading to the airport to get my dad."

Maisie beamed, something Claire was happy to see after yesterday morning's horrible fright that they were about to lose Timothy again, this time for real. "Oh it will be good to see him too after all these years, Jethro! We'll introduce ourselves to Tony and Jimmy and hope Tim will wake, even if just for a minute or two."

Leaving them, Gibbs hopped into his truck and headed for the airport. When he was stuck in traffic around a construction zone, he swore before remembering he was early. Dang, he was nervous and Gibbs didn't do nervous. However, it seemed that Leroy, son of Jackson, did do nervous.

Finally, he reached the airport and parked the truck. Having no idea what shape his dad was in these days, he thought he'd leave Jack with the luggage while he returned to short-term parking for the truck. His timing, delay and all, was just right as he spotted his father on the escalator into Baggage Claim as soon as he walked in. When they caught each other's eyes, Jack smiled while his son swallowed hard and worked up to a smile, afraid the older man would think something was wrong with Tim if he didn't smile.

Maybe because it had been so long, maybe because Tim had been encouraging him, maybe it was nearly losing his kid yesterday, maybe it was the newness of being a dad again but when his father approached, Jethro blinked back tears, reaching out to embrace him.

Jack dropped his carry-on and returned the hug, determined to hang on this time. They stood there for a couple of minutes until the alert on the nearest baggage carousel squawked and luggage was spat up onto it.

"That your flight, Dad, #607?"

"Yep, just got one bag. Wasn't sure how long I'd be here, thought I'd just wash clothes if I need to."

"Sure. Point it out and I'll grab it."

Jack opened his mouth to argue that he could get it but decided to let Leroy help him, just this once.

Several bags went by before Jack pointed, "That one, the black and white one, that's it."

"Nice bag, Dad." Jethro pulled it off the carousel.

"Yeah, got it when I went to Nepal a few years ago."

"Nepal, huh, that's got to be a story. I left the truck in short-term parking; there's a shuttle. Or you can wait here while I get the truck."

"Eh, I'll go with you. Got a lot of catching up to do and I want to see Tim!"

Jethro smiled, "They moved him to a regular room this morning and that wore him out. His grandmother, you remember Maisie?" Jack nodded and Jethro continued, "She and Claire, that's Jim's wife, you haven't met her before, were just going in to see him. He's rooming with another of my agents who also got hurt yesterday, Tony DiNozzo. Geez I gotta get used to that."

"What?"

"Kinda long story but I got hurt last spring and gave up the team to Tony."

"How can you give a team to someone?"

"I was the Team Leader, head of the team, and Tony was my second in command."

"Sounds like the military!"

"We're civilian but yeah that's my background and Tony's a former cop so he's used to the jargon."

"And Tim?"

"He's now Tony's second in command, before that he was my junior agent. And there's one more team member you'll meet, Ziva David. She's Israeli, a member of Mossad who works with us as liaison."

"What the heck does that mean?"

Jethro grinned at his dad. "No idea, really, it's a title my boss and her boss came up with. She has a lot of very useful contacts when we need information, other than that she's one of the team." He chuckled, "The boys call her our ninja warrior."

"Is she?"

"Oh yeah." He paused, "Those three are my former team. There are others we regard as part of our group. They work with all the other teams and didn't report to me. Dr. Donald Mallard is our Medical Examiner, team physician and my good friend; he'll tell you to call him Ducky. I hope you'll like him; the two of you can spin stories together. Jimmy Palmer is his assistant, working his way through medical school. A good kid who gets a little goofy when he's nervous and he's always nervous around me. Last is Abby Sciuto our forensic scientist. She's brilliant but has been acting strangely recently and I'm a little worried about her. We're trying to keep her away from Tim and Tony; afraid she'll break more ribs with her hugs and her worry is all-consuming, almost self-centered. And she's pulled some nasty crap on Tim, fooled me with her lies and well it wasn't good at all. Luckily, our Tim believed in me and made sure I knew the truth. I confronted Abby and while I trust her work, I no longer trust her personally."

Jack's eyes were wide, "Wow, some group you have there!"

"Yeah, oh one more thing. Ducky and Tony know that Tim and his siblings were my foster children but they don't know anything else about Tim's life and all of them just learned about Shannon and Kelly this past summer. All they know is that they existed and died, no more, well now Ducky and Tony know that Tim and the others lived with us.

"And DiNozzo and Tim are just becoming friends after working together for most of the past three years. There's some lingering distrust there on Tim's part."

"Because?"

Jethro sighed, "Because DiNozzo pulled pranks, is intrusive about Tim's private life and hazed the crap out of him. And Tim, a Navy brat, naturally kept his mouth shut. Eventually I heard about it and put a stop to the pranks and the hazing but DiNozzo can't seem to help his nosiness and that is a necessary trait for an investigator, at least curiosity is. Means we don't ever mention Tim's private life and if you hear DiNozzo commenting that Tim has a sad love life or plays video games all the time, just ignore it. Neither is true but Tim lets him think it, helps them get along to some degree."

"If they're gonna be friends, that Tony guy's gonna find out."

"And the good thing is it won't be my problem."

Jack chuckled, "Guess not."

"Should have asked before, you hungry or tired, want to go to the house first?"

"Nah, well yeah, I could eat lunch but I'm sure the hospital has a cafeteria."

"It does but it's not great. Tell you what, we pass a good little diner on the way, why don't we get takeout, we can eat with the boys. I'll get Tony something too. Tim's on a restricted diet."

"Sure, sounds good."

Jack was astounded when his son pulled out a cell phone, pressed a few buttons, and then had a one-sided conversation. "Hey, DiNozzo, you had lunch yet and if not, what do you want?"

"Ok, another Philly Cheese Steak. You two behaving yourselves?"

"Good, ask them if they want anything."

Long pause and then Leroy said, "Grilled ham and cheese on rye for Ducky and a chicken salad for Palmer." He snorted, "Like you had to ask. Tim asleep?"

"Nope, let him, he'll be nice and rested." He disconnected and asked his dad, "Know what you want?"

"Cheeseburger and fries. Coffee."

Jack wasn't sure if he should be angry or terrified that Leroy was doing all this while speeding down a multilane highway. Another few buttons pushed and the order was placed.

"You have a cell phone, Dad?"

"Yeah, don't use it much."

"Pretty handy in our line of work. Tim has something called a smart phone; he can access the internet and run searches from his phone. It's great; we can start our investigations before we get back to the office. Most of the time anyway; sometimes we have to wait for an ID if the body is too messed up."

"So, murders."

"Yup, murder, including serial killers, terrorist attacks, kidnapping, rape, assault, drugs, fraud, embezzlement, all in our bailiwick. The crimes all law enforcement agencies handle, whether they're federal, state, county or city."

"For the Navy and Marine Corps."

"And their dependents, either by them or against them or however they're involved."

"I don't think I want to ask about terrorism."

"Just as well, can't say much anyway. Except that we lost a team member, Kate Todd, to a terrorist assassin two years ago."

"You guys work in the Middle East?"

"We're all over the globe, Dad. But this was in Norfolk."

"Wow, lot of stuff the public isn't told."

"Be grateful for that."

"I am!" Jack smiled as they pulled into the parking lot of a diner. He really was hungry.

"Be right back." Jethro hopped out of the truck, glad things were going so well, even if he had to do a lot of talking. Usually he only did that outside of work with Tim and Duck.

He came out carrying two large bags of takeout in one hand and a beverage container with four drink cups in the other. Passing the drinks and bags to Jack, he waited until everything was situated, double checked the hard shell on the back of the truck to make sure it and Jack's luggage, was locked up tight and then resumed their trek.

Jack looked at the drink carrier. "Four coffees?"

"Yep, one for you, one for DiNozzo, two for me or you and I can split the extra one."

"What about uh…Ducky?"

"Tea drinker, he'll get hot water from the cafeteria, they can't screw up that up; he has a portable teapot someone gave him so he can properly brew his tea."

Leroy said that in some sort of accent; when his father looked at him, he chuckled, "He's a Scotsman."

"Ah, that's what it was supposed to be."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

They pulled into the hospital parking lot, parked and divvied up the drinks and takeout bags. Once in the hospital room, the two men put everything down and then Gibbs nodded to the individuals in the room. "Ziver, I wasn't expecting you! If I'd known, we would have brought you lunch."

"No need, Gibbs, I have already eaten. The director said I might as well come over since the rest of the team is here."

Gibbs quickly introduced everyone to Jack and the older man smiled and said hello and then asked to be excused while he said hello to his former grandson. Ziva and Jimmy looked confused so Ducky took them aside to explain while an awake Tim and Grandpa Jack had a happy reunion.

Tim held out his good arm, luckily the one closest to Tony's bed and Jack took it, giving him a gentle hug and kiss. As with Gunny and Timmo, both men cried. Jack admitted he was overwhelmed with everything, with his son's phone call out of the blue, hearing that Tim was in DC with Leroy but injured and now seeing them. Leroy joined them and somebody pulled the curtain closed behind them to give the illusion of privacy.

Ziva went to the cafeteria with Ducky while Jimmy sat in a visitor's chair to watch an episode of a favorite show. Eventually the cloistered trio rejoined them, Ducky and Ziva returned with water hot enough to steep their tea and the Gibbs men (minus the wounded warrior) enjoyed their lunches.

When Ziva reported that Abby's workload was nearly done, Ducky and Gibbs stared at each other. Ducky shook his head, "I'll handle it, Jethro."

Jethro shook his head and Tim cleared his throat, "Ducky, she'll never forgive either of us if he doesn't tell her."

Jethro grabbed his keys, told his father he'd be back in an hour or so, absent-mindedly gave Tim a kiss and flew out the door.

Jack frowned, "Seems like this Abby has a pretty big hold on all of you."

Ducky chuckled, "Our Abby is a force of nature." There were mumbled agreements and a few eye rolls.

On his way to the Navy Yard, Gibbs called Abby. "Abs, how's your workload?"

"Almost through with everything. If we just don't get any new cases for a couple of hours, I can go see Tony and Tim."

"Ok, don't leave yet, I'm on my way, need to talk with you."

"About what?"

"Got some information for you, nothing that involves you directly, don't worry. You'll like it."

"Good because this has been a really crappy couple of days."

"Yeah, you could really use an assistant, one that's not a scumbag this time. Maybe the director would allow you to interview the candidates and pick one."

"Huh. I'll have to think about that, Gibbs."

He disconnected; maybe cutting back on the amount of work she had to do single-handedly and hopefully also cutting back on the number of Caf!Pows she consumed daily would help.

Noticing the director's vehicle was not visible, he still parked in as inconspicuous a spot as he could find and then entered the building through the evidence garage. If she checked the entries, she'd know he was there but he didn't think she'd go to that length to track him down. He really wasn't ready to talk with her yet.

Abby was just finishing one of her last tests when he entered. He waited quietly. Once she finished and sent her findings, she looked up. "Ok, I'm done. What's up?"

He gave her a crooked smile. "First, I was serious about you approaching Jenny with having a say in hiring an assistant for you."

She nodded and looked at him expectantly. "Next, I want to apologize for running off on you and the others as I have been. I guess I really needed to get away after the explosions but all this coming and going was unnecessary and I'm sorry for whatever unhappiness I've caused."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "Have you apologized to Tony?"

"Yes."

"And are you staying?"

"Yes."

"All right, apology accepted." She threw her arms around him for a nearly full-strength Abby hug and kissed his cheek. "Don't ever leave us again. It was awful."

"Won't if I can help it. Got more." He took a breath. "Jen told you about Shannon and Kelly, my wife and daughter."

She nodded, her emotions bubbling up. "I'm so sorry they were killed."

"Me too. I don't like to talk about them because it's too hard with people who didn't know them. But in the last couple of years, someone who was part of our lives when he was a child has surfaced and it's a little better. And that's what I need to tell you today. Well, that and my father is in town, you'll meet him at the hospital."

"Your father…wow, I always knew you were good at secrets, but Gibbs, that and your wife and daughter, you must be like the top of secret keepers, like the Olympic Gold Medalist of…"

Recognizing an incipient ramble and really wanting to get through this, Gibbs smiled and put a finger to her lips. "Let me finish. My dad, whose name is Jackson, is in town. We haven't spoken since the girls' funeral. The reason he's here is that he also knows that person that I said surfaced. Back in 1989, I was an NIS agent working under Mike Franks and we were called out on a case. I'll fill in details later but long story short, Shannon and I ended up bringing the four children involved in the case into our family as foster kids. Two of them were siblings and the other two had been informally adopted by the siblings. The one you know, the one who came back into my life is Tim McGee."

Her expressive eyes nearly popped out of her skull and she opened her mouth but no words came out. Gibbs didn't think he'd ever seen Abby speechless.

Smiling, he continued. "They were with us for 8 months, long enough for Tim to recover from his injuries – that was the case that brought us to them. Then CPS found their relatives and we lost them. We wrote back and forth for a couple of years, I still have drawings we got from Sarah and Rob and Tim says they still have Kelly's drawings and all the photos we exchanged. Dad Crane is Navy so they moved around a lot. I got recalled to active duty and you know my side of the story after that."

He paused for breath as Abby nodded. When he told her the rest of the story, including Tim's recognition of his dead Gunny, tears rolled down her face and she hugged him again although lightly this time.

"I'm so glad he found you, us."

"It helps, it really helps having someone around who knew them and I hate that he and the others believed I was dead all those years. He was my son for 8 months, Abby. He's still my son."

"Is that why you were so mad at me?"

"I was angry with you because you lied to me and allowed what happened to happen. That was cruel and I'm still disappointed with your actions. And I made the mistake of not reading McGee's report although that doesn't excuse what you did. We work hard to keep our work lives separate; here he's Agent McGee, SFA on Tony's team, before that he was junior on my team. But outside of work, he's always my son, even if I have to share him with Dave and Liz Crane."

She took that in before saying softly, "Sister Rosita helped me a lot after that; she helped me see that I almost always let my emotions overwhelm me and then I only focus on my needs and feelings, not anyone else. I got scared about what you'd do and let McGee take all the heat. I knew better. I know better."

"Good, glad to hear you're taking responsibility and resolved to change. You need to tell Tim."

"Does he hate me?"

"Don't know; we haven't talked about that case or you since then. I doubt he hates you though, he saves that for criminals. He's probably hurt and angry."

She sighed, "I really screwed things up."

"All three of us had some blame, Abs. But he owned up to his and I owned up to mine. You did because Ducky and I forced you to, which also disappointed me. Tim still hasn't had a sincere apology from you."

"Is that why he ignored my apology?"

"Would you have accepted it?"

"Um, no."

"You work it out with him. Like adults."

"I will, promise." She paused, "The Tanner case was last year, so you've known for nearly a year. Does the director know?"

"No, I'll tell her soon. I still want to be an agent but Tony is Team Lead; have a plan to present to her but I need him with me. I mean physically present."

"You could lead the team or at least Ziva while the guys are on sick leave."

"Maybe, we'll see."

She reached out, "Thank you for trusting me with this. I've been feeling left out because I couldn't get to the hospital and haven't seen you in days and…"

"Knew you were swamped, didn't want to interrupt and well, been pretty busy myself with our boys."

"I'm done here, I'm gonna go see them."

"Good – word of caution though. My dad is older so be gentle with him and the boys have cracked and broken ribs so absolutely no hugs for either of them."

"I'll try to restrain myself. Are you going back?"

"Yeah and no 'trying'."

She nodded. "All right, I _will_ restrain myself. Let me send an e-mail to Cynthia so she knows where I am. I won't stay long."

She smiled to herself as she sent a quick e-mail, now he was impatient, she guessed wanting to get back to the hospital. It felt good to clear the air with him; she hoped Tim would forgive her. She knew she still had to regain their trust.

Gibbs drove at his usual crazy pace and she did her best to follow him, although she certainly knew the way to Bethesda. He waited for her while she parked and they walked into the hospital together. Jethro was relieved she'd taken the news so well. He'd called Ducky from the car to let him know Abby would be visiting.

Abby stopped in the gift shop to buy balloons for the guys. She told Gibbs she had 'Sorry you got hurt by the Dirtbag' cards for them in her purse. When he looked surprised, she smirked, "I made them."

He chuckled, "Great idea, Abs."

Ducky had told the boys and Ziva that Abby was on her way, coming in with Gibbs. After what he'd heard, Jack wasn't too surprised at the increased tension level in the room.

Tim was drowsing but was awake enough to hear Ducky say that Abby was coming for a visit. Pressing the button to raise the bed a little bit, he looked across the room at Tony.

"She won't hurt us. Gibbs will be here too, Ducky and Ziva are here, they won't let her hug us." He looked at Jack. "If you don't want a rib cracking hug and I mean that almost literally, put your arms and hands up in defense."

Jack's eyes widened but he paid attention when Ziva showed him. "She can't be that bad."

"She has a lot of energy and she thinks her hugs offer comfort and love and sometimes they do. They can also be painful and squeeze all the air right out of you."

"That's it, her hugs?"

"She's also noisy, rambles a lot and gets angry with people for random things."

"Like a child."

Dead silence and Jack thought he'd hit the nail on the head. Tim tried again. "As I said, she has a lot of energy and doesn't know her own strength. She also has a lot of love and wants to share it. She's closest to our team, or used to be and Ducky and Jimmy. And to be fair, she works alone in her lab. She loves her work and she's brilliant at it but she's an extrovert who's alone a lot, probably too much."

They heard heavy footsteps in the hallway; Tony noticeably flinched while Tim decided to be brave and leave his bed partially raised. Gibbs came into the room first; then Jack's eyes widened in surprise at the tall woman in what he would call stormtrooper boots, dressed in black with a dog collar, tattoos and what his granddaughter had called pigtails. Geesh, how old was this woman? He looked closely at her eyes and thought she was late thirties, early forties. He guessed he'd been close to the mark in saying she was like a child although he'd never seen a child dressed like her.

When Leroy introduced them, she raised both arms to hug him. Forewarned, he grabbed one of her hands and shook it, "Pleased to meet you, Abby."

Surprised, she nodded, "And you, Jackson. I'm so excited to meet Gibbs' father, although you're Gibbs too, the original Gibbs. Except you're not, that would have been your father or grandfather or I guess all the way back to whoever the …"

Ducky cut her off, much to the amusement of the others. "Abigail, I'm glad you could get away from the lab for a few minutes."

He'd called her Abigail and that usually meant he wanted to make a point with her. Oh, she'd been rambling a little. She made an embarrassed noise and looked over at Tim who was smiling at her.

"Timmy, I'm glad you're awake. Gibbs said you've been sleeping a lot, which is good you know your body will heal faster that way."

"Hi Abby, yeah, that's what the doctors say."

"Uh, can I give you a kiss?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Ziva's shoulders stiffen; that was interesting! He tucked that away for later.

Tim nodded, "A little one, no hugs though. Got all kinds of breaks, bruises and stitches."

She leaned over and gave him a smooch on the cheek, leaving behind red lip prints. When Ducky offered a tissue, he shook his head, "Nope, I earned an Abby kiss, I'm keeping these lip prints!"

DiNozzo finally spoke, "Hey, Abby, I'm here too."

She turned and smiled at him and his eyes grew wide. "No hugs. Just because my lungs weren't damaged doesn't mean I don't want to breathe. Got plenty of hurts already, two cracked ribs along with all this."

She nodded and making her way to his bed leaned over and gave him a chaste kiss. Then remembering her cards, she rummaged around in her handbag, pulling out two large envelopes. She handed each patient one and then stood back, eager to see their response.

Both men opened their cards, started to laugh and then moaned in pain as their cracked, bruised and broken ribs protested. When Tim could talk again, he motioned her over and kissed her cheek, "Thanks Abby, this is great. I promise to read it again when my ribs are healed so I can have a proper laugh."

She smiled and moved back to Tony who started to say something when a cell phone rang, interrupting him. Ziva pulled her phone out of a pocket, "It is mine and it is Director Shepard."

Gibbs stood still and Jack was highly amused, thinking of the proverbial deer caught in the glare of headlights. No one spoke but Ziva; they all listened to her side of the conversation.

"Yes, I am at the hospital. I believe they are both doing better, still in pain of course and sleeping a lot. It will take time to heal…Uh yes, I have seen Gibbs here…Today? Yes, I saw him when I arrived…I do not know his plans, have you not spoken with him?"

Now she smiled at Gibbs as she said, "I believe it would be best to come to the hospital to see him."

Jethro winced, knowing he was going to be talking with Jenny very soon. Jack was having a hard time holding in his laughter; obviously, his son had been avoiding this person. He noticed the others looked amused too.

Ziva disconnected, "She was calling from her car; she will be here in about 15 minutes, possibly less."

Tim and Tony looked at each other, pushed the buttons to lower their beds and like two little kids pulled the sheets over their heads. Abby giggled, "Guys, she's just coming to see how you are, you are her agents!"

Ducky thought of making a strategic retreat, "Ziva, Jack, care to join me for tea or coffee?"

Jack shook his head, "Oh no, I don't want to miss this, Ducky, thanks anyway."

Leroy half-glared at him before turning back to the two patients. "Guys, I may have to tell her the plan today. Any additional ideas would be greatly appreciated."

Tony pulled the sheet off his face, "I do have some, Boss, I mean Gibbs. Gotta get used to that."

"You could try Jethro."

DiNozzo made a noise, "Need way more time for that."

Tim also pulled his sheet off his face. "Do you need me?"

Gibbs smiled at his son, "Just to have good thoughts."

Abby's eyes widened, she'd never seen Gibbs smile at Tim – or Tony – like that. Or any guy for that matter. Ziva and her, yeah, Jenny probably but not the guys. He wasn't kidding about Tim still being 'his kid', even if it had been years.

Jack and Abby stayed with Gibbs while he and Tony discussed the plan; Ducky and Ziva went for more tea water.

Tim looked at Gunny, "You know if you apologized to her like you did the rest of us that would probably help."

Gibbs nodded; he planned to do that. "When she gets here and sees you two are alive and recovering, I'll ask to speak privately. When we come back in, DiNozzo and I can share the plan."

The two patients and Abby agreed. Abby added, "She'll like that you're respecting her authority and Tony's position. And doing the right thing for McGee too."

Jack frowned, "What's that?"

"Family members aren't allowed on the same team."

Jack snorted, "From what I've seen here today, you're all family."

He smiled at the beams from the four in the room. And then jumped a little when the door to the room opened rather forcefully and a beautiful redhead entered.

"Ha, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, found you!"

His son nodded, "Been right here, Jenny, since the boys were brought in. Good to see you. Got lots to talk about but first I'd like you to meet my dad, Jackson Gibbs."

Surprised, the fire went right out of her and Jack bit back a smirk as the woman turned to him with a charming smile, "Mr. Gibbs, I'm pleased to meet you. Surprised but pleased."

He shook her hand, "Pleased to meet you too, Director. Came to see how the boys were doing and I've been enjoying meeting Leroy's family here."

Realizing she had indeed been and was still neglecting her injured agents, Jenny turned to them, "Agents DiNozzo, McGee, I apologize for not being here sooner, I've been stuck on the Hill."

Neither said a word, just nodded to her, Tony smiling while Jack noticed Tim's facial expression was polite. Huh, he was either uncomfortable with her or didn't like her much; he remembered that about young Tim. If he didn't like something or someone or was uncomfortable with a person, he would school his face into a polite expression.

"I'll have a chat with Ducky and your doctors. Agent McGee, I know you'll be out longer than DiNozzo with your internal injuries. I'm grateful the surgeon could repair your spleen and didn't have to remove it and that your lung wasn't hurt any worse than it is."

"Thank you, Director."

Jenny swallowed a sigh, knowing McGee didn't trust her and was not her biggest fan. Oh well, she'd brought that on herself. Good thing running an agency wasn't meant to be a popularity contest.

Jack maneuvered himself so he was next to Tim. "Timothy, I imagine you're pretty tired, been awake a while. Why don't you try to get some sleep? I'm sure Leroy and the director will excuse you."

Tim had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing, Jack's comment reminded him very much of Grandpa Jack letting the grandkids know he'd fix whatever it was Gunny or Mrs. Shannon didn't like or wouldn't let them do.

After talking with DiNozzo, Jenny turned to Gibbs who nodded to her. "Like to talk privately, Director." The two of them left the room and Tim closed his eyes; glad that was over as far as he was concerned.


	12. Chapter 12

Here we are, the end of Connections, the second story responding to Aleta6's question about what would happen if Gibbs found Tim and the others at the shelter, also known as two alternate versions of 'Tim's beginnings' in 'At What Price'. Thanks to everyone who has come along for the read!

* * *

Chapter 12

Gibbs and the director found a table apart from anyone else in the cafeteria and sat with coffees. Jethro took a breath, "Director, first thing I need to do is apologize for my behavior the last few months." He went on to explain as he had to the others and Jenny accepted his apology although she was bemused by it.

The next thing her former lover said surprised her even more than suddenly discovering the man had a living father who'd appeared out of nowhere.

"Need to tell you about Tim and me. I don't know whether you've read the sealed documents in Tim's file but I have his permission to talk about this. When he was 9 he and his sister…" he told her about the abandonment and the kids ending up at the shelter and camp.

Jenny felt sick as she listened; she'd assumed Timothy McGee was the brainiac, spoiled son of an Admiral who couldn't handle the Navy due to his seasickness and made NCIS his second choice to please a demanding father. What she'd overlooked was the character of the young man, disparaging him as a wimp. Any child, any person, who lived through what he had must have inner steel. When Jethro continued, telling her of the stabbing, NIS's involvement and most importantly Tim being his foster son for 8 months, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"You're just now telling me this?"

"Another long story, boils down to Tim and his family being told I was dead along with Shannon and Kelly. When Tim and I met on a case in 2003, neither of us recognized the other. Him because he believed I was dead and I am significantly different from the foster father he lived with as a child. And me…mostly because I buried the memories of Shannon and Kelly and that included the foster kids." He went on to explain about Zach Tanner calling him 'Gunny' and Tim's response.

"Jethro, you can't, he can't…"

He interrupted, "I know that's up to you but it's a moot point now because I will not take the MCRT from DiNozzo."

She looked at him, "You're not coming back."

He shook his head, "I am, that is I'd like to but not with that team. DiNozzo and I have been working on an idea, a plan; have some input from Ziva, McGee and Ducky too. Hoping you'll be willing to listen and try it. We were hoping to present it to you together but if you've got time now I'll give you the nuts and bolts of it."

Encouraged by his show of respect for DiNozzo, she nodded her willingness to listen. As he outlined their plan, she took out a notebook and started sketching out what the teams would look like. When he was done, she stared at it. "To my knowledge we've never done anything like this."

He nodded and she studied the plan again finally saying, "I believe this could work. I need to do some research, see who's available, who'd need training." She looked up, "We've got some time while DiNozzo and McGee are on medical leave. Need to have it in place by the time Tony is cleared for the field. Do you have timeframes for them?" Gibbs gave her the estimates the doctors provided.

"All right, that gives us a few weeks. Until Tony returns, I'd like you to take the lead on the MCRT. I'll assign two TADs to work with you and Ziva."

Gibbs agreed with one proviso. "It's important that everyone understands I'm only filling in for DiNozzo, that the MCRT is _his_."

She rolled with the additional surprise, wondering how many more he had in store for her. As if he'd read her mind, he continued, "There is one more thing and because we won't be on the same team, I don't believe this will have consequences. Because of my donating blood for Tim the other day, we've been told we're probably father and son."

Her mouth dropped open again, her jaw was really beginning to hurt with all this, "More than foster, you're saying flesh and bone?"

He nodded, "Ducky's taken charge of having our DNA tested to make sure, but he and Tim's doctor and I guess the blood specialists are saying it's about 95% certain."

She smiled, "Wow, that's huge news, congratulations!"

He beamed, "I'm a dad again and to someone I already love as my child." He added, "I haven't had a chance to tell my dad yet and only Ducky knows."

"Tim knows?"

That beaming smile returned, "Yes. His doctor and Ducky told us together when he was in the ICU."

"This is just me being nosy but what will this do to his family?"

Gibbs was still smiling. "They already know I'm back in his life as his former foster father and that he's been on my team. During several of the 8 months he lived with us, we learned to share the kids with Dave and Liz Crane. Tim doesn't have a problem so Dave and I won't. "

"Dave is…?"

"David Crane, Admiral David Crane. He was a Captain then."

"I see. If there's ever a case he's involved in, McGee will have to recuse himself."

Gibbs nodded, "He's got an uncle in the Navy too, Captain James Hubbard. If Tim has to recuse himself then DiNozzo could pull in my SFA."

Jenny thought a moment, "In that case, you'd also be off the case so you two would have other duties."

He waited as she thought some more, finally nodding to herself. "We won't have contingencies for every single situation but overall this seems doable. I'm not willing to lose either you or McGee as agents because of your familial connections."

He relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief and she gave him a look. "You really thought I would turn you down?"

"Radical change, never been done before, could easily have said no."

"Then I hope we would have come up with some other way of handling things, Jethro."

Feeling like he'd been through the wringer, Jethro went back to the room with her to tell the others. They found both Tim and Tony asleep and the only visitor remaining was Jack, the others had returned to the Navy Yard. Jenny made a face, "We'll tell them later."

Saying goodbye to both Gibbses, she left and Jack smirked as his son sat down heavily in one of the visitor chairs, slumping back and stretching his legs out. "Well?"

"Yeah, Dad, it went okay, great actually. I'll tell you all about it when the boys are awake."

Tony cracked an eyelid, "I'm awake."

Tim let out a sound that might have been the start of a giggle, "Me too."

"What is it with you two?"

"Didn't want to make conversation with the boss, Boss, I mean Gibbs."

Tim nodded, "Same here."

"All right, so she's good with the plan and Tim, she's good with us but said right away we couldn't serve on the same team."

"Ok. So, Plan A?"

"Yep." He told them about the discussion.

Eventually the injured men really did fall asleep and the two older Gibbses left them a note. It was getting on for early evening and they decided to go to the house, drop off Jack's luggage, grab some dinner and bring it back to the hospital, including food for DiNozzo.

As they left the hospital parking lot, Jethro cleared his throat, "Dad, haven't had a chance to tell you but Tim needed blood before his surgery and I donated for him. Turns out that when they tested my blood against his, we're a solid match to be father and son. Ducky's having our DNA tested to be sure, but once I learned Tim's mother's full name and Ducky told me a particular nickname, I figured it out and yeah, he's my son, my flesh and blood child." He paused to take a breath, "You remember me telling you about that girl I dated in California, before Shannon and I got together?"

Jack wanted to think about Tim being a Gibbs but answered his son instead, "Vaguely and didn't I teach you to check back?"

"You did and I did. Her nickname was Tori, now I know her full name was Lily Victoria Hubbard and she wrote me a letter after I left California, telling me she'd married and including a phone number. I called her, to check - make sure there weren't any problems, just the way you taught me. But she never said and now I know that at the time she was around 5 months pregnant with my son. I'll never understand why she didn't tell me, why I never knew I had a child other than Kelly."

Jack shook his head, "Seems like a small point but I'm proud of you for calling her. Her not telling you was her problem, son, not yours. That about when you got your letter from Shannon?"

"Yeah."

"Lot of changes for you, son – and for me, I'm a grandpa again!" He smiled, "And it's our Tim, he's ours, a Gibbs, that's wonderful!"

Jethro let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding as they pulled into his driveway. "Dad, I…" to his surprise he started crying and his father pulled him into his arms. "Overwhelmed?"

His son nodded into his shoulder. "All these years…"

Jack shook his head, "Seemed like you caught a break when he and the kids ended up with you but then fate grabbed him away again."

"And eventually brought us back together." He patted his father's arms as he pulled away and sat up. "He's an incredible person, I'm so proud of him, so unbelievably grateful that he's my son."

"Does he know that?"

"He knows but we haven't had a chance to really talk about it." He made a frustrated noise, "We haven't had time or much privacy. When he gets out of the hospital he'll stay here with me and we'll have time to talk, to get used to this." He smiled, "If you'd asked me last week I would have said there wouldn't be much difference between how I'd feel about him as my foster son versus my biological child. But now - it's incredible. I have a child; I'm a dad again. And we have history together." Now he slapped his father's knee, "And you're a grandpa again!"

Jack nodded, "I'm also a dad again, Leroy. Tim's brought us together. Think we can work things out between us?"

"Yep, we're not lettin' him down." That got a chuckle from Jack and they finally got out of the truck and grabbing Grandpa Jack's suitcase, headed into the house.

They'd planned to return to the hospital for an evening visit but when Jethro found Jack sound asleep on the couch, he covered him with a light blanket and left a note. Back at the hospital, in the boys' room he found Tony's bed empty and Tim dozing.

He sat by the bed, resting his hand on Tim's hand, smiling when his hand was squeezed. Then the door opened and Ducky peeked in. Smiling at the empty bed, he entered the room speaking softly. "Jimmy and Abby brought dinner for the three of them and got permission to take Tony to the cafeteria to eat."

He stood by Jethro, "Is your father here this evening?"

"No, he fell asleep on the couch; I figured he needed the rest."

"And is Timothy sound asleep?"

Tim smiled, opening his eyes and answering, "I'm not, Ducky. Just dozing."

"Good! I have something for the two of you." Ducky took an envelope out of his pocket and with a flourish handed it to Gibbs. Giving his kid a grin, Jethro carefully opened the envelope and with a flourish removed the sheet of paper inside. Leaving it folded, he handed it to Tim who was torn between laughter and a roll of his eyes at the dramatic gestures. But he wanted to know for sure and he figured Gunny was just as anxious.

He unfolded the paper, a printout of the DNA run, and two pairs of eyes went straight to the bottom of the page. With a happy grin, Tim tugged his father closer and the two of them spent a few minutes embracing as best they could considering Tim's healing body. Jethro finally had to sit back, the position was killing his back. Ducky was gone from the room.

"My Tim, you really are mine!"

"And you're mine. When I have kids, you'll be Grandpa."

"One of their grandpas."

"Yeah. Two on my side. Oh man, I'm a Gibbs!" He looked at Gunny, "Do you mind if I don't change my name?"

"It's still your middle name, right?"

"Yeah, no one at work knows that but now they know about us fostering, it's ok." He tilted his head, "Might hyphenate it for personal. At work, I'd be McGee but outside of work I'd be Gibbs-Crane or maybe Crane-Gibbs."

His father smiled at him, "Good thing you don't have to write many checks anymore; that'd be a real pain in the ass to write every time!" He leaned close again, "Whatever you decide about your name is fine with me - it's just a name." He added, "Glad we had a chance to talk privately."

Tim grinned, "Tony's going home in the morning, figure he'll be out of here by noon. When's the family arriving?"

"Their flight is due into Anacostia-Bolling at 1600, so we'll have a few hours with you, me and your grandfather. Don't know if Maisie or Claire mentioned it, but your uncle had to stay with the ship, he'll fly in after your dad gets back."

Tim nodded, "I kinda figured that. Maybe we can get Geordie, Bill, Carol and Uncle Jim online. How are we going to do this? I vaguely remember something about a big room."

"Yeah, you were still in the ICU when you said that. There's a large banquet room here, guess they might have fund-raisers or something in there. Anyway, we've rented it for Saturday lunch. That way your brothers, sister and uncle will be online…is that Skype like we used to talk to the kids and Liz that first time?"

Tim nodded and his father continued, "The doctor told me and Ducky that you'll be back on some solid foods by then and in a wheelchair; he gave us a list of what you'll be able to eat. Claire's taking care of it; she knows a caterer who'll make something tasty for you too so we're set."

The two of them were still talking softly when Jimmy wheeled Tony back into the room, followed by Abby who'd brought a cup of espresso for Gibbs.

"Hey Gibbs, Tim said you were coming back so we brought you coffee."

"Thanks guys. Enjoy your dinner 'out' DiNozzo?"

Tony chuckled, "Yeah B…Gibbs. Nice to get out of the room for a while. Can't wait to get home tomorrow!"

"Offer's still open to stay with me."

"I know, thanks, I really just want to go home, my own bed you know?"

Gibbs nodded; he got it.

Abby looked at Gibbs, "He's got plenty of food, I'll get his prescriptions filled, he'll be fine. We've got a schedule to check up on him."

DiNozzo frowned at that and Gibbs chuckled, "Not gonna let you get away with much, Tony."

Tim was quietly laughing to himself when Abby spun around to him. "McGee, we'll be checking on you too. It's not that far from Tony's to Gibbs' place."

He and Tony exchanged looks. Tony just wanted time to himself; much as he loved his family, he liked alone time too. And as much as Tim also loved the family, he wanted time alone with Gunny and Grandpa Jack; he hoped the older man would still be around when he was discharged from the hospital.

"That's ok, Abby, though I do want to spend as much time with Jack as possible. I don't know how long he can stay." He looked at Gunny who shrugged, "Don't know either. He still owns and operates the market but he must have someone to cover for him."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

With Tim hobbling between them, Gunny and the Admiral gently helped their wounded son up the steps into the Gibbs' home. He was bent a little, protecting his healing chest and lung. Looking up he smiled at his grandfather who stood at the open door.

"Welcome home, Timothy!"

Tim nodded as he reached the doorway. "Thanks, Grandpa, glad to be here."

He'd finally been discharged, a full week after the crash. They'd had their family gathering over the weekend, minus Penny who couldn't get home just yet, the two of them telling the others of the newest discovery. It was news to all but Grammie and Uncle Jim who attended via Skype. They'd been told almost as soon as the Admiral left the ship to join his family at Bethesda.

Tim was surprised to find that Grammie knew he wasn't the biological son of Dan McGee, although she hadn't known his father's name. She beamed when she was told, happy that they'd been brought together. They returned the smiles when she told them she was sure Lily and Dan would be very happy for them.

The group would have a few more days together before Jackson and Admiral Crane returned to their other responsibilities. In the meantime, the former WWII bomber pilot and the Admiral, son of a submarine captain, entertained each other and their family by swapping hair-raising tales. The Admiral was in the middle of a story about his father's CO thinking he was an imposter while their sub was carrying a new and top-secret weapon when he stopped talking and smiled.

Jack and Tim, who hadn't heard this story before, looked up, also surprised, as Penny walked into the room. This was an unexpected treat! She warmly greeted Jack and carefully embraced her grandson. He held onto her for a few minutes as she shed a few tears, thankful she hadn't lost him again.

While dinner was prepared, Gunny and Tim took Penny out on the back deck. When they told her about them being father and son, she blinked several times and then sighed, patting Tim's cheek. "Sweetheart, I've always wondered how that all happened. Even as early as you were, there was no way you would have survived if Lily was only 20 weeks pregnant. Not back then. I think I've always known that you probably weren't Dan's biological child. I do know he loved you every bit as much as he did Patrick and Sarah. You were Lily's child and that was probably all that mattered to him. And you're stuck with me, kiddo, I'm always going to be your grandma…as long as you don't ever call me that!"

She turned to Gunny. "I wish we'd known all those years ago, would have saved the children from having to make that decision."

He nodded, adding, "But then they might have been in that van with Shannon and Kelly, Penny. We could have lost all of them." He sighed, "I wish Tori – Lily – had told me. We could have worked something out."

Penny kissed his cheek, "Hindsight, Jethro. We just have to love them even more now."

He smiled, "That's easy to do!"

Dinner was relaxing and happy. Over the next days, the Admiral and Jackson spent as much time with Tim as they could, allowing for his recovery. He was still sleeping more than he'd like but accepted that, as nurse Aunt Claire said, his body was healing.

Saying goodbye to his dad was always difficult but then Tim remembered he'd spent more time with him in the last few months than he had in a long time. Probably since they were in London and Dad was land-based.

Promising Jackson that he and the Gunny would head for Stillwater as soon as he could ride in a car for 5 hours made parting from him a little easier. At least he didn't move around as the Admiral did.

With Sarah and Rob's need to return to their classes, the rest of the Cranes were next to go. Penny stayed for another week before she had to leave for a lecture tour in Asia.

When the family was gone, with only father and son left behind, the two relaxed, enjoying some quiet time together although Gibbs, Ziva and their TADs were busy with a case.

They gave themselves a week before inviting the team for a barbecue late on a Saturday afternoon. By now, Tim was ambulatory, up and around, he'd even been on a few short walks with his father. Neither commented when Tim called him 'Dad' a few times. Jethro was fine with either title, being lovingly addressed as 'Gunny' or 'Dad' brought so much joy to him he could hardly contain himself.

As usual with their dinners, members of the team brought something to share. Tony made a garlic pesto flatbread for appetizers, Ziva made a dish that nobody but Ducky realized had vegetables in it. And he wasn't telling, even when everyone raved about it. Abby brought drinks while Ducky provided the buns for the hot dogs and hamburgers. Jimmy brought fresh berries, whipped topping and ice cream for dessert. Tim supplied a potato salad, purchased from a favorite deli. Normally he'd make the salad but he didn't feel up to it yet. Gunny supplied the backyard, picnic table, the burgers and 'dogs.

After feasting and before Jimmy brought out the fresh berries and ice cream, Gunny rose from his seat, standing behind Tim, placing his hands on his shoulders. Clearing his throat, the man smiled so wide that more than one person wondered if it hurt. "Have an announcement to make."

When everyone was listening, he continued, "When Tim arrived at the hospital, he'd lost so much blood he needed a transfusion. He has a rare blood type, O- negative, same as me. While Ziva and I were sitting in the waiting room, I had a call asking me to donate for him. I did and they went through their usual testing procedure before transfusing him. Guess it worked since he's here with us. But something else came out of that. When the blood experts did the testing, they noticed something and eventually told Dr. Aldersol. And he told Ducky who says he was speechless.

"The two doctors waited for Tim to wake from surgery and while he was in the ICU, told us, the two of us. They said all the…scientific stuff… in our blood matched so closely that there was a 95% chance we're father and son." He paused to lean down and kiss the top of Tim's head. "And you know what? They were right! We had our DNA tested and yep, I'm Tim's old man, he's my boy! And I could not be prouder or any happier than I am."

There was a split second while the others digested the astounding news and then pandemonium erupted. When it quieted a bit, Ducky stood and with a glass of lemonade toasted the newly discovered father and son. Tim and Gunny grinned at each other while the others cheered, overjoyed for their friends.

The End

* * *

Episodes referenced are:

Season 1: _Sub Rosa_ , when we first meet Tim McGee;

Season 3: _Honor Code, Probie, Bloodbath, Hiatus 1 & 2_;

Season 4: _Shalom, Escaped._ I skipped _Singled Out_ but _Escaped_ is still the 3rd time Gibbs returns and is the episode with Mickey Stokes. I tweaked the arrest so that Mickey got away.

One further note: while not a part of this story or 'The Letter', at some point there will be one more story in the 'At What Price' universe but it won't be ready for a couple of months.

The next story I'll post will appear a week or two after the Season 15 premier of NCIS, airing September 26th in the U.S. I had hoped to get it out there before the premier but I've run out of days and have a very busy month coming up. Anyway, the new story is a stand-alone, not related to any prior 'verses. I'm pretty excited about it, hope you will be too! Until then, happy NCIS! Stay healthy and safe!


End file.
